OWSLA: The Creation
by Kenstergirl12
Summary: Sonny is spending a nice summer with his sister, Jamie, after a long tour together. Everything seems set for summer fun but after the sky explodes one night, everything changes. Join Sonny, Joel, Jamie, and her friends as an unexpected visitor brings them all closer together. (Origonal cover art drawn by Kenstergirl12 aka me) Skrillmau5
1. If It Wasnt Hydra's Fault,It was Sonny's

The day had begun like any other summer day. Normal. Well, let's retract that. DJB normal. Get up and make Abby breakfast. Then swear up and down to your step mom you didn't do it. And today it meant putting Sonny in a body bag and dumping him into the hole in the backyard. Then after working out to exhaustion via insanity abs, cool down on your couch to obsess over Sebastian Stan. Eventually your phone rings and you pick up a call from Natasha which inevitably disconnects because her phone, Riza, hates you. Ect. Ect. The usual. I mean, yes, at some point Sonny did something stupid but when is he not being stupid? The fact he wrote on your closet door with whip cream was the least of your concerns. Bella licked it off anyways so it's all good now.

What happened that wasn't part of the normal day was the explosion in the backyard... the one you hadn't caused.

Bucky sat on the couch watching Kings for the umpteenth time. At least she tried to, she was simultaneously fighting off her brother who was trying to steal her popcorn.

"Sonny! Cut it out!"

"But I'm hungry too!" The goblin whined. "You're so mean Bucky!"

Bucky rolled her eyes at her annoying brother. After taking a year off from school, this was her last summer before going to collage. She had decided to spend it in Texas with her friends who were still in high school. Phishie, named for being the only freshman in their little click when their friendship had been established, would be a senior next year. Karmina and Natasha who were a year ahead of Phish had graduated a few days ago and were planning to go to college after summer too. In the year Bucky had been gone, she had pursued her music career and created a name for herself as DJB, inspired by her own brother Skrillex... who was still trying to take her popcorn. The sneaky goblin.

"How am I supposed to revel in the sexiness of Sebastian Stan when you keep distracting me!" She yelled frustratedly.

She finally had time to herself but Sonny seemed bent on ruining it. Abby was asleep, Annie was who-knows-where and their Dad had a late night at the office. Everything was peaceful and quiet with the exception of her brother.

And then the sky exploded.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Sonny screamed.

The brightest star they had even seen shot across the sky. Everything was white. They were blinded by the explosion as it flooded through every window. A shock wave slammed both of them back into their seats on the couch. The last thing she remembered was the flashing green light before she blacked out...

When Bucky regained consciousness, her ears were ringing. Sonny was shouting at her but it felt far off in the distance due to the buzz blocking her hearing. She slowly regained her senses.

"Sonny... get... off!" Bucky yelled from under him. The older of the pair had wrapped himself around her to protect her from who-knows-what monster he thought was coming to kill them.

"No! I will protect you!"

"Get off of me goblin!" She shouted back, and using her black belt moves, managed to kick Skrillz across the room so she could breathe. Finally free of the confines of her annoying brother, Bucky looked around... 'what the hell was that?' She could still feel a tense pulse in the air. The power was also off. The unwanted thought of an attack from Hydra came to mind but Steve had already taken care of that so they weren't due for an evil plot just yet. But if it wasn't Hydra, then the next person whose fault it must be was...

"Sonny, what did you do?"

"What! I just make music and build spaceships, I don't make the sky explode!"

"If it's not Hydra's fault, it's your fault."

"How do you know it's not Hydra?" He challenged.

"Well... because... because if it was Hydra I wouldn't be asking questions. I would be brainwashed already."

"Ok, true," the goblin reluctantly admitted. "But this is not my fault."

"Uh huh."

"It's not!"

"Whatever you say"

"You're so mean!" Sonny whined from the other end of the room. He was currently still lying on the floor where he had landed after Bucky had thrown him off a minute ago.

By now though, Bucky was ignoring him, having switched into winter soldier mode to process the situation.

The undeniable fact was the tense shock wave pulse was coming from their own back yard, along with the blinking green light peeking through the curtain. So there was something outside. Ok. Assuming whatever was outside was a threat, it was still outside and they were safely in the house... for now. It was 10 o'clock with no sign of Dad or Annie. They couldn't depend on their return to help them. Ok, so what advantages? Strength wise they had shelter, food, and Bucky knew martial arts, as did Sonny, but she didn't count of him being reliable in this situation so she left that out in her calculations. Although she had left her hunting bow back in South Carolina, the hunting rifles should be in the garage and she was pretty sure they had paintball guns in the attic if they needed it. Ok, so Liabilities. Abby and to some extent, Sonny. Abby was still upstairs sleeping but even awake she would be defenseless and in need of protection. Sonny was supposedly a black belt but he never seemed to remember that when he needed to. Weaknesses: there was no power and they had no idea what they were up against. In other words, once their phone batteries die, they wouldn't be able to reach help In till the power came back on. Also, they could be facing Hydra's new robot which could nuke them in seconds or be over reacting and there be nothing dangerous at all.

"Alright, after thinking it through, I think the best course of action would be-" Bucky stopped. "...Sonny?" She looked around. Oh geez where had the goblin wandered off to now? And why is it... cold.. in...here..?

That's when she noticed the back door was open.

"God damn it, you idiot!" Bucky stormed outside after him, furious. Did that idiot EVER think things through? ' _No of course not, he's a 7 yr. Old man child!_ '

' _Oh, silly me_ ,' she mocked to herself ' _I forgot_ '

The night air was cool against her skin, a soft breeze playing with the tips of her hair and then... silence. The night was eerily quiet. The only sound the occasional exhale of the wind and her own breath.

"...Sonny?"

 **rrrrRRRRRRrrrr**

Suddenly, from across the yard, she saw the object blink it's green light again, emitting its light from which she could see Skrillz' idiotic gaze of wonder.

"What the hell?" Bucky walked over to where she could stand behind him. "Sonny... what IS that?"

"I have no idea..." from his crouched position on the ground, he reached out to touch the foreign object.

On instinct, she slapped his hand away. "Don't TOUCH it, goblin!"

"Well, what else am I supposed to do with it?" Sonny huffed.

Bucky examined the curious object before them. It was oddly pod-shaped... or... egg shaped? She couldn't exactly tell. The thing had nestled part of itself underground, due to the force of impact. Green lights that made curious linear patterns on the outside slowly continued to flash, illuminating their faces for long intervals. The exterior seemed to make of some sort of... steel rock? She couldn't tell but she had a sinking feeling that whatever it was, wasn't from this planet.

Wait. Had she really just said that? Surely she wasn't considering this to be first contact? That's ridiculous... not in HER backyard.

"Bucky... Bucky I think there's something in there!"

Sonny's excited voice snapped her from her thoughts and she followed his finger to where he was pointing.

In the cycle of the flashing green light, just when it had reached its peak of brightness... just for a moment, there appeared to be a figure like shadow inside.

"It's an alien!"

Bucky watched as Sonny reached out to touch it again.

"No! Don't-!"

It was too late. The goblins hands had make contact with the pod's surface. Bucky watched in horror as it opened, the hiss of a vacuum un sealing sounding discordant in her ears.


	2. Surely Assassin Duties Include Aliens

**RING! RING! RING!**

Natasha looked up from her perch on her loft. She had been up all night reading, completely enamored with a recent fan fiction she had found. She blinked tiredly in the darkness.

This summer was the last one before heading to college and with each passing day she was becoming more and more aware of that fact. However, ignoring the inevitable seemed to be one of her hobbies and so instead, she was determined to milk this summer for all it was worth. She had planned, or rather listed, tons of things to do with her Marvel obsessed friends. Nat laughed to herself. She thought back two years ago to when it had all began. Bucky, walking through the doorway to their theater classroom. She never could have imagined then how important that person would be to her or how much she would change her life. The truth was, Bucky's real name was Jamie but due to her obsession with Marvel and more specifically the Winter Solider, she soon become Bucky. Since Natasha was already named Natasha, she became Black Widow. Phishie was aptly namned Alexander Pierce because she looked innocent but she had a dark side that was pretty scary... Karmina became little Steve (Captain America before he was injected with the super serum) and soon there was Hydra and Falcon and Thor and Nick Furry and Rumlo. They had basically obtained all the Marvel characters over the years through all their friends. And just like that, it had become a thing. Now Nat's dream was to work for Marvel, all thanks to that little adorable blonde.

 **RING! RING! RING!**

The continued ringing of Riza (as Phishie had named her phone) snapped her out of her reminiscing. What time was it anyway? Nat glanced at the clock.

11:00! ' _Who the hell is calling me an hour till midnight!'_

 **RING! RING! RING!**

"Alright, alright," she barked. "I'm coming, I'm coming... you stupid phone."

Grumbling to herself about interruptions, she climbed down and grabbed Riza from her spot on the charger. Sleepily, she put the phone to her ear. "Do you realize what time it is?"

"Yeah, time for you to do your job and come help me." Bucky's authoritative tone rang back to her.

Natasha assumed she was switching to Jack mode, a role play between them where Bucky played the king of Gilboa and her own character Rose, was his loyal assassin. Either way, Nat ignored her. "I should be asleep right now."

"But you weren't"

"But you didn't know that, did you?"

"Of course I did, Hydra keeps tabs on everyone."

Natasha couldn't help but look around for hidden cameras in her room as she sighed. "Bucky-"

"Look, just get over here, NOW!"

"NOW?"

"Yes, NOW, it's an emergency!"

"What kind of emergency?"

"Bring poptarts!"

"Bring popta- what? Bucky!" The line went dead. "Buck- damn it she hung up!"

Bring poptarts? Why the hell did she need poptarts? Had Thor eaten all of hers or something? That didn't make sense. She considered the option of calling back but knowing it would be pointless, she merely put Riza in her pocket as she sighed to herself.

What could Bucky have gotten herself into? ...Natasha groaned. With her Rubra Stella, there was no telling. Surely if she just needed poptarts, it couldn't be an emergency... but then again... Bucky had actually _asked_ for her help. ' _Since when do that stubborn, lovable, idiot admit she needed help?'_ Never. Which only meant... things must be pretty bad.

Charging downstairs, Nat slid on her socks across the kitchen, opening the island cabinet. _Poptarts... poptats... where iz you poptarts?_ Finding a glorious box of cinnamon poptarts, she lunged to grab it.

' _GOD DAMN IT!'_ She cursed in her head, shaking said poptart box. Her damn brother, Theodore, had eaten them all and left the box... again.

"Screw it," Nat muttered to herself. "Poptarts are not a matter of life and death and I'm tired. I'm not going to the store right now, it can wait till tomorrow."

Natasha tiredly trudged herself back up stairs to her warm and loving bed. Tossing and turning five minutes later turned the warm invitation into a cold one, kept awake by her worries about Bucky. What could have happened? Is she hurt? Is she injured? What if she needed stitches but kept insisting she was fine like she always does? Or maybe their house flooded, or someone broke into their house! What if Bella ran away and the poptarts were to bait her back or something? Or... or...

"God damn it, Bucky!"

Half an hour later the doorbell rang and when Bucky opened the door, she could clearly see her best friend, Natasha, looking disheveled.

"This better be good." Nat grumbled.


	3. What's In a Pod?

Illuminated by the porch light, Bucky could clearly see Natasha looking disheveled from head to toe. Her hair was wild and falling out of their pigtail buns. Clothes, mismatched and sloppy, looked hastily put on; her shoes were just barely shoved on her feet and left untied. On her back was her backpack and overnight duffel, a sleeping bag and pillow stuffed under one arm, which was also holding the biggest first aid kit she had ever seen.

Natasha attempted to catch her breath. "I brought the med-kit."

"I see that..."

Bucky wasn't sure why she thought Natasha would have done anything different. Her best friend hated being unprepared. This resulted in Natasha bringing way more stuff than they ever needed to just about every get-together their group of friends had. Then she saw the Kroger bags in her friend's left hand.

"Oh! So you did bring the poptarts!" Taking the Kroger bags from her, Bucky headed for the kitchen.

"Oh just leave me to bring all this stuff in by myself, that's... Great." Struggling through the doorway, Natasha somehow managed to shut the door and plop down her stuff before following her friend to the kitchen with only her skull backpack in tow "So what's the emergency?" Natasha questioned, looking at Bucky for all the injuries she could be hiding. "...and why did you tell me to bring poptarts?"

"Oh, Sonny and I just wanted poptarts."

"...what?"

"Oh, you brought stuff for s'mores too," Bucky continued, rummaging through the shopping bags. "That's cool."

"...So, there isn't an emergency."

"Well..."

Natasha glared at the blonde. The distasteful thought that this was all just a ploy so her girlfriend could see her, entered her mind. (The two of them has been dating since Nat's sophmore year.) Since Bucky had moved to South Carolina they had barely seen each other over holidays but this was a bit far... and far out there. Nat's mind came up with crazy situations some times. She reasoned however that Bucky knew she worried about the blonde constantly. It only made sense the Winter Solider would use Natasha's weakness to get what she wanted. Honestly it sounded more like something she herself would do but...

"Don't fucking tell me I just dragged all this shit here... for nothing!"

Bucky was quick to explain. The more stressed Nat got, the more cuss words she used and a tired, angry, and stressed Black Widow is an assassin she would rather not deal with. "Calm down Nat, there really is an emergency, okay?"

"Well then, what's going on?" Natasha asked. "Bucky, I don't understand."

"Me neither..."

"Bucky!"

"Okay, okay," secretly smiling at her girlfriend's exasperation, she grabbed a cinnamon poptart. "Follow me..." As instructed, Natasha followed Bucky's lead through the kitchen and out the backdoor. "It's over there, you got a flashlight?"

"Yeah, I brought a few..." Nat began searching her bag as Bucky smilled in the darkness. She knew Nat would have one.

"Where's the-?" Natasha felt around for the button. "Oh, here it is!"

"Gah!" Bucky immediately recoiled as the flashlight beams hit her smack in the face.

"Sorry!" Nat pointed the beam away, bitting her lip in guilt.

Bucky rubbed her eyes, blinking them back into focus. "Ow."

"Sorry..." Nat mumbled. Knowing that her girlfriend would never trust her to wield a flashlight again, she pressed the cool metal handle into Bucky's palm.

Having recovered her eyesight, Bucky took the offered flashlight. Controlling the bright beam, she searched the yard until it illuminated Sonny, still kneeling in the grass where she had left him. Walking towards him, Nat followed, grumbling about flashlights and poptarts.

"Did anything change while I was gone?"

Sonny shook his head. "No, but now that the green lights have turned off, I can't see it so I don't know."

"Right..."

"I'm sorry, did I miss something here?" Nat looked between the siblings, confused.

"Something fell in our backyard, but the lights are off now, so we can't see it."

"Did you try the porch light?"

"Our power's off" Bucky explained.

"It's first contact from aliens!" Sonny jumped up excitedly.

"WHAT?!"

"You idiot!" Nat watched as her blonde friend slapped him upside the head. "We don't _kno_ w that!"

"Wait a minute! You guys better start explaining. Right. NOW!" Nat yelled, beginning to freak out. Sure, Natasha worried about her girlfriend's safety constantly thanks to all the dangerous stuff she did, but aliens was never part of the plan. It was never even thought as possible.

So, Bucky began to patiently explain how the sky exploded.

When the story was done, Nat was shaking her head at her. "And you thought it wise to involve me, because... why?"

"Because you're my assassin?" Bucky shrugged like it was no big deal; like it was obvious that when aliens are invading your backyard, literally, the first thing to do was call Rose, the Black Rose Assassin.

"Assassins kill people! This is not in my job description, Jack! Alien-Control is not a part of my responsibilities!"

"I'm sure dealing with aliens is in your contract somewhere." Bucky shrugged.

"As Black Widow it is, what do you think Avengers was all about?" Sonny oh-so-helpfully pointed out.

Natasha glared at him until he shrunk back underneath her withering stare. He was not helping her case. Bucky had always said she was intimidating. Although she didn't understand it, she was glad to have the ability in her arsenal at the moment.

"Yeah, see? So, what do we do, Wise One?"

Natasha just tiredly shook her head, resigned to the fate that had been thrust upon her. What _did_ they do next? The green light mentioned earlier had turned off so they couldn't even see the pod. It sounded like whatever was in there had already escaped, if the noise Bucky had described was any indication. ' _Well, I guess you can't deal with anything unless you know what you're dealing with...'_

"Well, lets see it it then." Grabbing Bucky's wrist, she re positioned the flashlight to shine on the foreign object.

There was a collective gasp from them all as they gazed at the inside of the pod. The pod had opened to reveal a... Well, in the simplest terms, an alien. The small extraterrestrial being was no larger than a bread box.

"She's tiny..." Natasha let out a breath in awe.

"How do you know it's a girl? It's an alien."

"Its got boobs you idiot!" Bucky slapped said idiot.

"Okay, okay," Nat chided them. "Why don't we focus on getting her out of there?" She crouched down in front of the tube. Now that the pod was open, there was a glass tube set inside the egg-shaped interior. Inside the glass tube was the little alien, comatose in the vial of glowing liquid and held in place by what seemed to be black wires attached to various parts of her body.

"How do we get her out?"

"The glass is already cracked, lets just break it!" Taking the flashlight from Bucky's hand, Sonny swung it over his head.

Immediately, Natasha ducked, trying her best to protect herself from the glass that was about to shatter right in front of her face. Luckily, Bucky stopped him in time.

"Don't!" grabbing his wrist, she prevented him from making contact with the tube. "Natasha was RIGHT THERE! She could have gotten hurt, not to mention the alien inside as well." Bucky scolded.

"And your hand." Nat added.

"Nobody cares about his hand."

Natasha just shrugged at her friend. She knew it was common for Bucky to act like she didn't care. Sometimes her tough exterior was hard to get through.

"The tube appears to be removable, so lets just eject it from the pod..." Natasha began feeling around for a button or switch.

"Over here..." Bucky grunted as she struggled to pull out the tube from an obvious handle like object.

"Let me." pushing his younger sibling out of the way, Sonny grasped the handle.

Suddenly, Natasha shrieked as the tube ejected itself from the pod and the glass shattered all over the ground.

"Nat! Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah..." she lied. Nat winced, as she could truthfully feel blood dripping down her legs.

Grabbing the flashlight from Bucky, Sonny crouched over the broken vial.

That's when the small creature opened its little hazel eyes and said...

"Bangarang!"


	4. Mau5 Ears

The only sound in the dining room was Natasha's heavy breathing.

"Ah!" said person winced again as her girlfriend picked another shard of glass from her leg.

Bucky glanced up with a mean look, not the least bit pleased Natasha had lied to her about being okay. After the pod shattered, the three of them had split up. Sonny had taken the alien inside to give it a bath. Meanwhile, Bucky and Nat had carried the tube remnants, along with the goop, inside the house to examine. Miraculously, the power had started working again so they could see what they were doing, but only when Bucky had turned on the dining room light had she seen Nat's legs. The glass had made short work of Natasha, some pieces even embedding themselves in her flesh. Blood was dripping in rivets down her shins and her pajamas were soaked in it. Knowing first aid, Bucky had immediately sat Nat in a chair and grabbed the first aid kit.

"Maybe if you hadn't been an _idiot_ about it, this wouldn't hurt so much!" The blonde growled at her friend before refocusing her attention on taking out another tiny shard of glass.

"I doubt- ow- admitting it would have-" Natasha took a sharp breath as a very large piece was taken out. "-prevented glass from slicing up my legs..."

Having no reply, Bucky bitterly continued plucking pieces of alien tube from her friend's legs as Nat cursed under her breath. To be honest, Natasha was a little scared of her girlfriend's temper at the moment. Generally speaking, Nat was afraid of pain so she avoided being in situations where she could be harmed. Therefore, she had never been seriously injured before. Honestly, this was the first time something like this had happened to her, unlike her blonde friend who did dangerous things all the time. Natasha wasn't even sure what had possessed her to lie about being injured, it was so unlike her. Now she was really regretting it. Natasha had never seen Bucky mad about her injuring herself because it was always the other way around.

"No no no, Owsla, this way!"

Both heads snapped up as they watched Sonny do the protective dance behind the tiny alien as it crawled across the floor. The little blue being was now clean of pod goop and wearing a small t-shirt, probably taken off of one of Abby's stuffed animals. Making her way across the floor, she stopped at Natasha's chair, reaching up with a tiny hand to grab at her pajama pants.

"Aww..." Natasha picked up the little thing, sitting it in her lap. "She's adorable."

"Mhmm" Bucky nonchalantly commented. She wasn't going to outright disagree, but it was obvious she had a differing opinion about the little blue thing.

"I gave Owsla a bath in the bathroom sink."

"Owsla? That's what you named it?" Bucky made a face of skepticism.

"Owsla, huh?" Nat lifted the little thing in her arms to look at her critically. After a long pause, she finally broke into a huge smile. "That's adorable, I love it!" Owsla began to laugh and giggle in her arms, as if agreeing with the semi-redhead.

"You do know you're cooing over an alien, right?"

"Aw, but she's cute. Come on Bucky, lighten up."

"Yeah, what's there not to coo over?" Sonny agreed, watching Owsla with bright eyes.

"I don't know, how about the fact she has blue skin, four arms and purple hair... and lets not forget she has boobs but she's the size of an infant." Bucky rolled her eyes. She loved her best friend, but sometimes she questioned Nat's sanity.

Lowering Owsla back into her lap, Nat starred at Bucky seriously. "Jack, she's an alien species, cut her some slack."

"How can I? She's an ALIEN, Rose! We don't know anything about her. For all we know, this could all be an act to lower our guard so she can kill us all."

"She's harmless." Sonny reassured his younger sibling.

"Yeah, that's what she wants you to think."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Snap out of your Winter Solider mode." Wrapping the being into her arms, she began petting Owsla's hair. Suddenly, she stopped. "That's strange..."

"What is?" Bucky narrowed her eyes, muscles tensing, ready to leap into action like she was expecting for it to attack her girlfriend any second.

"...She has mau5 ears.."

"Mau5 ears? Like the rodent?"

"Yeah, like look at her ears. They're round, like mau5 ears." Natasha held Owsla's hair out of the way and tugged on the small circle for both musical siblings to see.

"Great, so she's related to rodents." Bucky rolled her eyes. This was getting stranger and weirder by the second, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know what was going on.

Sonny only laughed, taking out his phone to snap a picture of Owsla's ear. "This is great, I'm sending this to Joel to tell him I found one of his relatives. Get it? They're not mouse ears they're Mau5 ears!" smiling to himself he started typing up a text message, the other two trying to hide the fact they actually found it kind of funny... kind of.

"You think maybe Joel is trolling you again?" Natasha asked. However, the goblin didn't hear her, now absorbed in his phone.

Bucky dismissed the idea. "I think this is a bit far, even for Joel." Sure the Mau5 had done some crazy things, even wearing a t-shirt with Sonny's phone number on it to the Grammys. However, having known him for a long time, Bucky doubted even he would come up with something like this.

"But look at her," Natasha argued. "Her hair is shaved like Sonny's, I mean it's on the right side instead of the left of but still... and look at this," Nat brushed Owsla's hair from her forehead to show Bucky three very familiar red lines. "A Skrillex symbol on her forehead."

Bucky frowned. Sure it was odd but... no matter how rich Sonny's best friend was, how could he have pulled this off? "Maybe the mau5 ears have nothing to do with Joel. They could be part of her species. Just like the four arms and the blue skin."

Natasha furrowed her eyebrows considering it. "And maybe... perhaps... they sent her here for a reason?" Nat bit her lip, the words sounding even more ridiculous now that she had said them.

"Are you telling me the aliens designed Owsla in Sonny's image and purposely put her in his care?" Bucky raised her eyebrows at Nat. And her girlfriend thought _she_ was crazy. They both knew Sonny was a 7 yr. old man child. How could aliens expect _him_ to take care of Owlsa?

Natasha sighed, trying to figure out the puzzle before them. "Well, it's more likely than Joel doing it. There probably aren't scientists on earth that could do this anyways."

"Unless we're talking about Hydra." Bucky pointed out.

"Yeah but what would Hydra want with that idiot?" Natasha pointed at the goblin in the corner of the room, making weird faces at his phone.

"Fair enough."

"Or," Nat hypothesized. "Perhaps your brother really is an alien and he just doesn't know it. Like, they came to this planet before to drop him off and now they're sending him his little sister."

"Then why doesn't he look like Owsla?" Bucky questioned.

Natasha shrugged. "He's a rough draft and she's the new and improved version?"

"That explains his brain capacity..."

Only Owsla's whining burst all bubbles of concentration around the room. All three heads turned towards the blue infant beginning to fuss in Natasha's lap.

Natasha frowned at the squirming ball of limbs. "Owsla, what's wrong?"

The three of them watched as Owsla tried to get on the dining room table.

"Uh... do you allow aliens on your table?" Nat hesitated.

Before Bucky could object, Sonny excitedly exclaimed "Yes!" and picking up Owsla from Nat's lap, set her on the table. Immediately, the little four-armed alien began to crawl on the table to the remnants of the tube they had brought inside.

"Oh my god!" Natasha exclaimed, realizing the potential danger. "Sonny, stop her! She's going to hurt herself on the broken glass!"

"Wha-? Oh!" Sonny leaped over to stop Owsla but missed, tripping and ultimately falling on his face.

"Smooth, Sonny. Smooth." Bucky rolled her eyes.

"Owsla!" Natasha watched as the infant crawled over to the tube and stuck her tiny fingers in the gooey liquid the pod had been filled with. Then, once her small hands had been coated in the stuff, she began to lick it off. "What- is she...?" Natasha blinked in surprise. "Is she eating that?"

"I don't even wanna know..." Bucky effectively ignored the alien on the table eating pod goop and resumed plucking glass shards out of Nat's legs.

By now, Sonny had managed to get up from the floor where he had so gracefully landed. He watched the blue child lick the goo from the glass shard nearest to her as he knelt at the table, resting his head on his folded arms. "Is she supposed to be eating that?" He asked.

There was a pregnant pause as the sibling's gazes shifted to Nat.

"Wha-?" Natasha exclaimed, shocked that they would consider consulting her on the subject. "Don't look at me! I'm not an alien expert. I just film people pretending to be aliens! Ask Bucky, she's the only one whose had experience raising kids!"

"That's completely different," Bucky defended herself. "My other siblings weren't alien infants!" She retorted, beginning to apply disinfectant to Natasha's wounds.

Natasha quickly bit her tongue. She really wanted to whine at the burning sensation coating her skin but she refused to let herself. She knew about the dangerous things her girlfriend did, and she knew how every scar on her body had been gained; and they all shared something in common: Lots of pain. Whining about this compared to that would make her feel like the biggest whimp in eternity. So instead, she bit her tongue 'till it bled, causing even more pain until Bucky finished and began bandaging her wounds.

While the two of them had been distracted however, Owsla had been up to her own antics. She crawled across the table to play with Sonny's rather large koala nose.

"Um, hi...?" Sonny watched as her little hand grabbed his nose and began to squish it. "Hi, Owlsa!" he grinned at her. Owsla began to giggle in response as she played with the cartilage on his face.

"Yep," Nat whispered to Bucky as said blonde finished bandaging her legs. "Totally a weapon of mass destruction." The only response she got from the blonde however, was a glare.

Sonny meanwhile, encouraged by Owsla's laughter, picked up the blue creature to hold her high above his head. Bucky and Nat gave each other a look as he began baby-talking to it.

"Who's the best alien thing on Earth? You are! That's right, you. Hi, Owlsa!"

"Hii Owzluh!" her little voice rang back, one little hand waving down at him.

Sonny gaped at the infant in his arms, turning back to look at the girls. "She learned her name! Did you see it? Did you see it?"

Bucky rolled her eyes. "Yes, Sonny, we saw."

"Son... nie?"

Sonny's face lit up like Christmas. "Yes! That's me, Sonny. Say it with me... Son-ny."

Owsla's head tilted as she peered at him curiously. "Sonnie... Mooorrr?"

"Wha-?"

"Skrill...x"

Confused and shocked gazes turned towards the little blue thing.

"How did she know that...?"

"Well maybe you were right Nat, maybe there really is a reason she landed in our backyard..." Bucky concluded.

Of course this reasonable explanation didn't prepare them for Owsla's next words. Slowly, Owsla's look of confusion disappeared, replaced by a smile. She laughed happily as all four of her little hands reached out to him.

"Mommy!"

And immediately, Owlsa began to slip from Sonny's arms.


	5. Welcome to Motherhood?

"SONNY!" Natasha screamed.

Sonny had been so shocked by Owsla's words, he had almost dropped her. Snapping back to focus though, he was able to re-establish his grip before it was too late. Jumping from her seat, Nat hurried over on her injured legs and took Owsla from him.

Bucky looked equally horrified. "You almost dropped her dude."

Natasha, after retrieving the almost dropped infant, retreated to the other side of the room. Holding Owsla protectively in her arms she glared at him as she spoke. "You could have killed her!"

"But.. but- she just- she said-" Sonny continued to stammer in comprehensively. The stimulus of Owsla's words seeming to have short circuited the brain power he had left.

Ignoring him, Nat continued. "Your Owsla holding privileges are now revoked in till further notice!" she declared.

Finally, the goblin's brain rebooted and was able to form sentences once again. "She called me Mommy."

There was silence as they all paused. None of them could deny they had heard it loud and clear, so how could they explain the strange occurrence they had all heard? Deciding it was time to get to the bottom of this, Natasha was the first to step into action. Sitting in a dinning chair once again she plopped Owsla down on the table in front of her, starring at the creature suspiciously.

"Owsla, who is this?" Calmly reaching out to her right, she grabbed Sonny, positioning his face right in front of Owsla's line of sight.

It took Owsla a moment to recognize him but she cheerfully exclaimed "Mommy!" Without hesitation.

"No," Sonny shook his head. "Sonny. Son. E."

"Sonnie iz mommy!" The blue being replied.

"Wha-! No!" But the poor EDM star could only lower his head in defeat as the blue alien just kept laughing happily at him. Meanwhile another sound of merry was piercing the air.

Turning around, Nat found the source of the giggling in the corner. Bucky of course being the culprit. Natasha just shook her head as Sonny too turned to look at the blonde.

"That.. that... that _thing_... thinks you're it's mother!" Bucky barely made the words out in her fit of laughter.

"That _thing_ has a name!" Sonny defended.

Bucky mustered up a straight face. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" Sonny stood there for a second, an awkward pause separating his words as he blinked at her. "Owsla!"

This time they both laughed. Natasha trying to hide her wavering face behind her sleeve while Bucky openly burst out in a fit of giggles.

Nat couldn't stop her next comment from leaving her mouth. "That's only something it's mother would say." And finally she leaned her head back to laugh openly too, her and Bucky both struggling to breath between their chuckling.

Sonny's ears burned pink. "W-well, s-so what?" he stammered defensively. "She has MY logo on her forehead and the pod landed in MY backyard so obviously she's MY alien.. child... thing?"

The two teens struggled to regain their serious faces as Sonny sat back down at the dinning table, pouting.

A creature of opportunity, almost immediately Owsla called out to him as he sat down, "Mommy!" she said happily. And reaching out to him, the little being stood shakily on her little legs and took a few steps towards him before falling onto her knees into his waiting arms.

Completely forgetting about being embarrassed, the raven haired man squealed enthusiastically "Oh my god! She took her first steps!"

Natasha, having regained her composure, frowned uneasily. "Her development is surprisingly fast..."

"That's only 'cause she's the best alien on earth!" Sonny cooed.

His sibling rolled her eyes. "To our knowledge, she's the ONLY alien, idiot." Bucky had finally calmed down from her laughing fit too.

"Alright, listen here Owsla, I'm NOT your mommy. I'm... uh..."

"If she's 'yours' you'll have to be her guardian so why not just have her call you Dad?"

"That's... weird." Bucky made a face.

Sonny however, seemed to like Nat's suggestion. "Ok yeah. Owsla, I'm Dad."

"Mommy?" The blue creature blinked up at him with innocent hazel eyes.

"No, Daddy. Say it with me. Dah-de"

Owsla looked confused. "Dahdy?" As if searching for something, the alien looked around and started to cry. "Dahdy!"

"Sonny!" Natasha scolded.

"Good job, 'Dad'." Bucky nodded, watching as everything went to hell in a hand basket, just as she had predicted. I mean, her brother + infant alien. She was just waiting for this to go bad.

Meanwhile Sonny started to panic with the screaming child in his arms. "What'da I-? What? What do I do?" Sonny was actually starting to cry himself.

Natasha rolled her eyes and taking the screaming child from him, put Owsla on her shoulder. Bouncing lightly as she slowly rocked side to side, Nat stroked the sobbing child's back soothingly as she murmured comforting words. Sonny and Bucky watched in amazement as Owsla's cries and screams began to subside in no time. Soon, the four armed creature was sound asleep.

"She's all tuckered out. It's been a long day for you, huh Owsla? Crashing on earth, meeting a new family..." Natasha smiled at the small being wrapped up in her arms.

Bucky closed her mouth from where it had fallen open in astonishment. She herself knew how to deal with children because of all of her half siblings, but where had her girlfriend learned how to do that? Didn't she always say little kids scared her?

"Where did you learn to do that?" Bucky eyed her girlfriend suspiciously.

"Uhhh... instinct?" Now that Nat thought about it, she wasn't really sure. Surely everyone knew how to cuddle a baby, I mean its just a natural reaction... Right?

Sonny leaned to whisper into his sister's ear. "Are you dating an alien?"

"I don't think so. Maybe shes part cyborg instead and she has a child program downloaded in her?"

"That's a thing that could happen?"

"She was raised by Leviathan, I don't think we want to know all the things that could happen."

Natasha only starred at the both of them with a very un-amused face. "You two suck at whispering," rolling her eyes however she ignored them. "I think she was upset because she couldn't find her Dad."

"But that doesn't make sense." the raven hair protested. "I'm her Dad now."

"No," Natasha shook her head. "Think about it. She knows your full name and your stage name before we told her."

"But I didn't teach her that. I only taught her Sonny."

"Exactly." Nat nodded in agreement. "None of us said it either so she couldn't have gotten it from us."

"You mean.." Bucky hesitated. "You mean her home planet taught her?"

"That would make the most logical conclusion. She was sent here for a reason and to do it they taught her about Sonny. They even taught her that he's her mother."

"Ok that's crazy and all but the relation to the Dad thing is...?" Bucky prompted the semi-red head for an explanation.

"If they taught her who her mom is, they must have taught her who her dad is. So when Sonny said 'Daddy' she must have started looking for him and when she realized he wasn't there... She panicked."

Bucky narrowed her eyes at the alien clinging to her girlfriend's shoulder. "That makes sense I guess... If anything that's happening makes any sense at all."

Sonny stood up suddenly, slamming his hand on the table. "Who is he?" he demanded. "I'm divorcing his ass and he's not getting any visitation rights! Owsla is MY alien child! _I_ carried her out of the remnants of her spaceship crash, _I_ was there when she said her first words! _I_ was there when she took her first steps in _MY_ direction! I put goop in her mouth and teddy bear t-shirts on her four armed person! NOT HIM!"

Neither Bucky nor Natasha were sure how to even begin addressing the holes in his statement. Technically it was all true but... Uh...

"Where are you going?" Bucky questioned as they watched the raven haired goblin charge upstairs.

"I'm calling my lawyer!" With that, Sonny left.

"Well at least the aliens got one thing right, he's definitely the more... Uh.. Motherly type?"

Natasha laughed softly. "Yeah, well, I'm not helping you bust him out of a mental hospital when the lawyer calls it in."

"Don't worry about it, Joel and I have got it covered. There was a fanfiction about Deadmau5 busting him out of a mental hospital once."

"Should we be concerned that even his fans think he'll up there someday?" Natasha raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend, a worried look on her face.

Bucky shrugged. "I'm not but you can worry if you want."

"I don't think I have the worry to spare, you've already taken all of it." smirking tiredly at her, she gave a girlfriend a kiss on the temple before heading upstairs to find a resting place for the sleeping baby in her arms.


	6. ALWAYS Knock First!

Natasha lazily blinked open her eyes. Morning sunlight filtered through the window, warming her skin. The sleepy trance of a morning wake-up continued to addle her brain as she slowly rolled over to go back to sleep. If her stomach wasn't growling it was to early to be awake. Her movement was hindered by the sleeping form of her girlfriend who she came face to face with on the other pillow.

Bucky blinked tiredly. "Good morning."

Sleepy trance gone.

"GaAh!" Natasha jumped out of of bed, falling backwards on the floor with a thud.

"You're an idiot." the blonde mumbled before rolling over to continue her slumber.

What the hell? Why was Bucky in her bed? Wait this wasn't her bed, where was she? Natasha looked around confused. Bucky's bedroom? Why was she- oh. As if hung over, the events of last night slowly un fuzzed and replayed themselves in her brain. The phone call. Rushing over here. Then...

Owsla.

She must have fallen asleep with- oh god. A horrid thought occurred to her. Was Bucky okay?

Natasha quietly stalked over to the bed to check on her girlfriend. Last time they had slept next to each other, Nat had beaten the crap outta Bucky in her sleep. She cringed at the thought of beating her up... again.

First, Natasha checked her face. It seemed unscathed, not any scratches or bruises besides her usual scars. But since the face was only about 5% of the human body surface area, she wasn't about to let let a deep breath just yet.

Of course, checking Bucky's health would be a lot easier if a certain girlfriend of hers would let go of the blankets.

"Bucky, let go of the blanket." Natasha insisted, tugging on said piece of fabric.

She only got a sleepy mumble in response.

"Let go!" she repeated. "I'm trying to check for bruises."

A sleepy whine of protest in-sued and Bucky curled back in on herself to protect her precious comforter from being snatched away.

"Buuuckyyyy" Natasha whined insistently.

"No."

Although she was trying to hide it, Natasha caught sight of the small smile on her girlfriend's lips. She was awake. That jerk. In retribution, Natasha sat on said jerk with her arms folded in non amusement.

"Get off."

"No."

"I can beat you."

Natasha merely smiled at the empty threat. She knew Bucky wouldn't really beat her up. Shove her off the bed? Most likely. Slap her? Maybe. Beat her up? Never.

"Oh will you now?" Nat smirked at her perch upon her friend, an obvious challenge in her voice.

Bucky narrowed her eyes mischievously. "Or maybe I'll get revenge in some other way..." the blonde easily slipped her hands on the back of Natasha's neck, bringing Nat's chest to her own.

Realizing her intentions, Nat squirmed but there was a reason her girlfriend was an 8th degree black belt. She failed to get away as Bucky buried her head in the crook of Natasha's neck. "Bucky, don't! Please!" Nat whined unfruitfully as her girlfriend began to blow against the back of her neck mercilessly; breath hot and heavy against the sensitive skin.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! J-just let go!" the poor girl whined and squirmed.

Deciding she had tortured her girlfriend enough, Bucky finally let go. Natasha's reaction was immediate. She sat up, hair wild and falling in her face, cheeks flushed and breathing hard. Personally, Bucky could never believe the affect that simple action could have on the semi-red head.

"You jerk face!" Nat pouted, hands on her shoulders, effectively pinning the blonde beneath her. "You KNOW that's an erogenous zone for me!"

Bucky just smirked back. She could easily get out of Natasha's weak hold on her but she was too lazy. It was way too early for that anyways. "So? What'cha gonna do about it?" Bucky looked up at her through sleepy eyelids; grinning with jest on her lips.

Natasha's eyes darkened with a lewd look. "Oh I can think of lots of things to do about it."

To be 100% honest, Nat's brain had a permanent residence in the gutter. She could think of tons of ways to get back at the girl beneath her for stirring up her desire. However, just because the both of them were incredibly dirty minded, didn't meant they'd actually done anything... Even if they hinted and joked at it 24-7. The lame truth was they had never gotten past a light 2nd base.

There was a long pause as they just starred at each other before Nat leaned in to kiss Bucky's forehead softly. The blonde let out a small sigh of content as the feel of Nat's warm lips on her skin was-

The door slammed open.

"You could knock!" Nat screeched, her lips no longer comforting the blonde as she jumped away like a frightened cat at the sudden noise.

Likewise, Bucky's heart clenched in fear at the startling intrusion. She relaxed when she realized it was only Sonny standing at the door frame.

Sonny on the other hand had turned away. "Whoah! Sorry... I'll... leave-"

Natasha breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god it was only Sonny. "You might as well come in now." the sudden shock and fear of being discovered had effectively cleared all the desire out of her system.

Sonny came in with the two bowls of cereal he had been carrying, shutting the door with his foot. He couldn't seem to look at them though, avoiding eye contact with both of them with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Stop blushing, we weren't even doing anything." Nat rolled her eyes at the raven haired man. Behind her, Bucky effectively hid a slight pang of disappointment.

"You were sitting on her..."

"Yeah, I do that to everyone... When they're being mean." Natasha dismissed the importance.

"Yeah, but-"

"Do you want me to sit on YOU?"

"No!"

"Then shut up!" Natasha paused before a sly smile spread across her face. "I probably shouldn't anyways. You're so tiny I'd crush you."

"HEY!"

Bucky watched the two of them bicker with an amused expression. Nat had never seen Sonny as anything other than her brother. She loved his music, sure, but for some reason Natasha didn't care one bit that he was making the beats she was always listening to. In fact, the first time Natasha had even talked to him was when he had stolen Bucky's phone and talked to Nat on kik. Natasha had then proceeded to yell and lecture him when he pissed her off by saying something stupid. She had never let his fame star struck her, instead he would always just be the alien idiot.

Currently however, they were using their cereal spoons to have a mini sword fight. _They're both childish weirdos._

"Would you two cut that out? You're getting milk drops everywhere."

"We've actually been using forks the entire time and... she hasn't noticed." Natasha turned towards her to proudly display the fork in her hand. Apparently Sonny had accidentally grabbed it instead of a spoon. The grin on the semi-red head's face told the blonde she was insanely proud of her reference to the 2015 Hard Summer trailer.

Bucky just rolled her eyes and calmly went over to take Sonny's cereal bowl and spoon. Sitting next to Nat, she began to eat it herself.

"Where's your breakfast Sonny?" she munched loudly, her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk (and to Natasha that was just too adorable).

Sonny watched as his sister ate the cereal. "But that IS my breakfast!"

"Not anymore it isn't." Bucky held it out of reach as the goblin tried to grab at it.

Natasha looked at him funny "You knew I was here, why did you only bring two?"

"I can only carry two so I thought you and Bucky could share one."

Next to her, Bucky blushed. "You're an idiot!"

Natasha just smiled evilly, putting a bit of cereal on her fork. "Oh really? Say, 'Ah!' Bucky! Here comes the airplane!"

Said girl had to dodge the insistant 'airplane' trying to land in her 'hanger'. "Naaat! Cut it out! I'm not sharing a bowl of cereal with you!"

"Aw, but why not?" the semi-red head pouted. Bucky could only hope she was teasing.

"Just go get another bowl Sonny."

Sonny whinned but left to go get another bowl as Natasha landed the airplane in her own hanger with a teasing smile.

"You're an idiot." Bucky huffed.

"I know,' Nat just smiled back, her insistent exuberance not fading in the slightest. "I guess next time I'll just have to tie you up."

"Tie me up?"

"Yeah and force feed you instead. That way the next time the airplane will surely land in the right hanger." with a with a wink, Bucky knew her girlfriend was thinking in the gutter again. Not that she minded. However the switch between sly, domineering Natasha and shy, blushing Natasha would always confuse her.

"And just what makes you think you'll get the hanger to open?"

"Well for one, this particular door likes to yap a lot but if that one's closed I'll just have to use a different door."

"I'd like to see you try." although her words were strong, she felt pinned beneath Natasha's gaze.

"Oh do you now?" Her cereal forgotten, Nat slowly crawled over to her like a cat stalking a mau5. "I have my ways..."

Their fun was interrupted by a small knock on the door. Both girls sighed as they were jarred out of the moment once again. They had been interrupted twice today already. At least Sonny had learned his lesson and knocked this time.

"Nattie!"

Nat made a face. "I'm coming Sonny..." _that's weird since when did Sonny call me 'Nattie'?_

"If that's what happening perhaps you should keep the door closed..." Bucky smirked as her girlfriend walked past.

Natasha tomato faced immediately. "I didn't mean it like that!"

But it wasn't Sonny that was waiting for her when she opened the door.

"...Owsla?"

Natasha was pretty sure she didn't know any other four armed, blue skinned, mau5 eared alien... But... Uh..

"Hi Nattie!" Owsla chirped, hugging her around her waist and hips with all four arms.

The little alien... wasn't so little anymore. Overnight she had grown to the size of a small child of about 7. Now Owsla's head came all the way to her belly button.

"Growth spurt much?"


	7. A Mau5 Call

Bucky munched quietly on her cereal, starring suspiciously at the blue alien thing across the room. After Sonny had come back with his cereal, they had sent him back down to get Owsla's goop and shards. Now the four of then were all eating their breakfast on the floor of Bucky's room. The awkward silence was only filled with the crunch of frosted flakes and Owsla's noisy licking.

"Owsla. How the crap did you become a child overnight?" The blonde's tone came out in a harsh interrogating manner.

"Bucky!" Natasha exclaimed. She didn't understand why her girlfriend was being so hostile. What was it about Owsla that made her go into super winter solider mode? "You can't expect her to know all that! She was an infant just yesterday!"

Owsla just giggled happily, completely oblivious to Bucky's menacing glares across the room. "It's okay Nattie! I know lots of stuffs! It's part of the unshinkaficayton process!

Natasha smiled at the little blue being as she tried to say the huge word. "Unshrinkafication?"

"Yeah! That thing!" Owsla nodded happily as she swallowed her latest mouthful of pod goop.

"What's the unshrinkafication process?"

"Its the redevelopment of a subject by the use of rejuvenative fluids to expedient their growth back to the original state of creation."

The rest of the room was silenced as they tried to understand what had just happened. Natasha was the first to ignore that Owsla knew that at all and begin deciphering the definition.

"...in other words, that goop will make you grow back into who you were originally?"

"I guess"

"What do you mean, 'you guess'?" as the blonde spoke up, Natasha could hear the glare in her words.

"I'm not sure what it means I just know the definition." the little alien shrugged.

"Alien science is so cool!" Sonny gushed.

"No its not! We have no idea what's going on!"

"I wonder if that's why she has boobs at the developmental stage of a child. If she was created as an adult and then shrunk it would make sense..." Nat quickly became lost in her own thoughts as she pondered to herself.

"You mean these things?" grabbing her chest, Owsla began playing with the mounds curiously, squeezing and pushing on them. "They're so weird..."

Sonny quickly looked away awkwardly, Bucky watched in astonishment, and Natasha blushed at the alien's provocative actions. Even if the alien had no idea what she was doing.

"Uh, Owsla? Don't-"

"Oh look Nattie! You have them too!" Owsla laughed and began to poke curiously at Natasha's chest.

"OH! Kaaay..." Nat quickly removed the little blue being from her, already feeling the glares from her girlfriend across the room. "Okay lesson number one: Those are called boobs. It's not okay for you to touch your own, or others in public."

Owsla just smiled and nodded, completely oblivious to the crude behavior she had engaged in. "Ok!"

Natasha fought the blush from her cheeks. _'At least she didn't grab Bucky's chest_ '. It's not that she would have been jealous (ok maybe just a tad) but that the semi-red head was pretty sure the poor blue being would end up with a black eye.

"So Owsla," Natasha continued. "Just how long will this 'unshrinkafication' process last?"

"A total of four days. From infant to child to teen and finally adult on the forth day... As long as i keep eating this goop."

Heads turned at the sound of sniffling. Sonny was being emotional. "Kids grow up so fast! Blink and you miss it!" As he cried, his phone rang and putting it to his ear, he let out a sob. "Hello?"

"Eh? Sonny? Why're you cryin' man? Everything alright over there?"

Tears forgotten, Sonny perked up immediately; sitting up so suddenly he almost knocked his cereal bowl over. "Joel!"

Everyone's head turned at the name that had burst out of Sonny's lips. Although they knew both of the men personally, both girls not-so-secretly shipped them. Natasha blamed Bucky full-heatedly for her Skrillmau5 obsession. As an otaku, Nat was yaoi obsessed so how could she have resisted when her girlfriend told her all these stories about them? She couldn't understand how Bucky wasn't embarrassed by shipping them considering one of them was her brother and the other was practically her other brother just from knowing him so long. Personally it made Nat tomato face and she would die if either artist found out.

Either way, the two of them watched in interest as the raven-haired man chatted on excitedly into the phone.

"Yeah, I'm fine! What's up?"

"Eeeh? Yeah..?" Joel was obviously confused but it's not like he wasn't used to the goblin's weird mood swings by now. "So whats with that picture you sent, eh? I never knew you to be crafty so why make a random mau5 ear? I'm flattered, really, but Valentines was months ago." the Mau5 man snickered on the other side.

The girls watched Sonny's face heat up from across the room. "I didn't make it!" he protested.

"You bought it?" Joel voice saddened. "And I thought I was special skrills!"

"It's not a valentines you idiot!" Sonny rambled on embarrassed. Why the hell would he make Joel a valentines? Its not like he had feelings for his best friend or anything...

"Oh."

Sonny hesitated. Why did Joel sound so depressed? "...Oh?"

"Well... You never did anything for Valentines with me this year and I thought a Mau5 valentines was pretty cool..."

Sonny was at a loss. The Mau5 sounded so defeated it made his heart pound with guilt. He stopped himself from saying something stupid like 'I didn't know you would want to celebrate with me'. Of course Joel would want to, they were best friends for gods sake! "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings, Joel. We could still do something if you wanted?"

Finally, Joel couldn't take it anymore and burst into laughter. "You are so gulliable! I was only teasing, I know its not a valentines, you idiot!"

"Damn it! You troll!" Sonny yelled embarrassed. He couldn't believe he had let Joel trick him like that! He _knew_ the Mau5 man was mischievous like that.

"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings!" Joel mocked.

"Joeeel!" the goblin whined. "Stop laughing, I really thought you were offended!"

"I know, that's why its funny!"

Sonny pouted as his friend continued to laugh on the other end of the line. How could that troll even _be_ Canadian? Seriously!

When Joel calmed down again, he continued. "Anyways, I called you aboot it last night but you never answered."

Sonny's head tilted in confusion. " 'bout what?"

"Aboot the picture!" Joel hissed back irritated.

"Oh yeah! Sorry about that, I was probably too busy talking to my lawyer."

"Lawyer? What the hell's going on?"

"Uuuh." The goblin sent a glance in Owsla's direction. "That's a bit hard to explain."

"Dude what's that supposed to mean? I bet you knocked up your girlfriend."

"No... I mean yes... I mean I did but that has nothing to do with this."

"WHAT! You did? Oh man I was joking!"

"Not really. It wasn't actually mine, Charmaine was cheating on me. We broke up forever ago."

"Why didn't you tell me, eh?" Joel's voice came back uncharacteristically pissed.

"I thought I had told you. It's pretty old news man."

"Just because we've hung out since then, doesn't mean you can assume you told me! Don't you think you should be able to remember telling me?"

"Well the first time we saw each other after all of that happened I got drunk sooo..."

"Dude, you can't just assume you told me because you got wasted!"

"Maaaaaaaaaaaang" Sonny pouted as his best friend scolded him.

Joel snickered. "Though I can see why you would, since you blab non stop when you're drunk... Which happens all the time. You're such a light weight."

Said man blushed. "Am not! Shut up!"

"It's not my fault you're so short and tiny."

"You're so mean!"

And just like that the picture was forgotten. Both of them too absorbed in their conversation to remember the point of it. The rest of the group was content to munch on their cereal till they heard footsteps coming towards the door.

They had all been so preoccupied they had forgotten about the other people who lived here...

"Shit!" Natasha cursed under her breath and grabbing Owsla, shut herself in the closet with the alien. Of course neither of the siblings had to ask why she done it. They merely sighed in relief at her quick thinking.

There was a knock on the bedroom door before it opened. "Jamie?"

' _Whats_ _the point of knocking if you don't wait for an answer!'_ Nat thought bitterly in the darkness of her girlfriend's closet.

The truth was 1.) Bucky's real name was Jamie. But her real name felt so weird on Natasha's tongue because her nickname was used so commonly. 2.) Natasha wasn't exactly fond of Jamie's parents because 3.) They actually hated her guts purely because she was dating their daughter. In other words, they were homophobes.

So being here was actually a very dangerous situation for both of them. If they found her even just hanging out with Bucky, she didn't want to think of the consequences. And if they found her IN THEIR HOUSE... Natasha just hoped her parents would be able to find her dead body after they killed her. As far as Jamie's parents knew, they weren't dating anymore. In fact, they weren't even supposed to be in contact anymore. Ever since they had found out about their relationship two years ago, they had forbidden the two of them from seeing each other. Talk about sneaking around. Now that Bucky was 19 they couldn't enforce it anymore but currently all of them were on her parent's property.

So you'll understand why everyone in the room besides naive little Owsla was on edge as the siblings starred up at Jamie's step-mom in the doorway.

"Hey Annie" Bucky replied smoothly.

In the closet, Natasha had her eyes squeezed shut. Her heart was pounding uncontrollably. Out of the two parents to chose from, Annie had to be the worst option. If Jamie's dad found her there would be trouble but if Annie found her there would be World War 3.

"Hey... Whose car is outside? It was there when I got back from work last night."

Natasha's eyes opened wide in the darkness. _'Oh shit! My car!'_ She had completely forgotten about it, parked right outside the house.

"Oh, one of Sonny's crew came by but their car broke down so we gave them a ride back to the hotel instead. He's taking me with him to go get it fixed today."

Nat sighed in relief. Thank god her girlfriend could lie. Both of them had a natural talent for it but sneaking around for two years had perfected the skill for both of them.

"Yeah," Sonny agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "We'll probably be gone all day getting it fixed. Tim said I needed to get some work done, so..."

"Sonny, we've told you before, don't have random people over here!"

"Sorry..." Sonny pouted. He had long ago given up trying to convince Annie his crew members weren't random strangers.

Annie just rolled her eyes, sighing annoyed as she shut the door behind her.

Natasha breathed out a sigh of relief as she finally opened the closet door. "Thanks."

"You're not the only one who'd get killed if she found out you were here."

Ignoring her prickly comment, Nat simply wrapped her girlfriend in a hug, needing reassurance because her heart was still racing.

"Mommy?" Owsla tumbled out of the closet to hug on Sonny's arm. "Who was that scary lady?"

"She's a demon. You have to keep special charms around to keep yourself safe."

Owsla gasped with huge, fearful, round eyes.

"Sonny!" Natasha scolded. "Stop scarring her!"

"But she is! How else would that little charm keep her away?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. She could only assume the 7 yr. old man child was referring to the hand charm she had drawn. Back when Bucky was still just a friend, they joked about how Annie was a demon so Natasha had drawn a little charm as a joke to protect the two siblings. A few days after receiving it though, Annie had landed a job that kept her out of the house 80% of the time. Therefore he swore it worked.

"All of that doesn't matter right now, we've got to get out of here before someone sees Owsla or me."

"And go where exactly?" the blonde questioned.

There was a moment of contemplative silence.

"...Phishie's?"


	8. To Phishie's We Go

"Oww." Sonny whined from the backseat.

Natasha glanced back at the raven haired man through the rear view mirror. "What now?"

"Abby kept kicking me and now my shins hurt! I'm gonna get bruises." the goblin complained.

"Boo hoo." Bucky sympathized sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. Currently, she was trying to get a hold of Phishie but the dork didn't seem to be picking up.

"Why did _I_ have to distract her?"

"Because it couldn't have been Owsla or I," stopping the car at the crosswalk she let a few pedestrians pass to the park before continuing. "and you lost rock paper scissors with Bucky, remember?"

Sonny let out a huff remembering the unfortunate event. After the close call with Annie, they had decided to go to Phishie's. There really was no other place to harbor a blue alien child. So they had patiently waited till both of Bucky's parents had gone to work before leaving the safety of the bedroom. The only problem with leaving was that Abby was still there. Knowing Abby, she wouldn't be able to keep quiet about Natasha, much less a blue alien. So, the obvious conclusion was someone had to distract her while the rest of them slipped out. After losing a round of rock paper scissors, Sonny was chosen to distract her. Distract was a light word for it though. In actuality, Sonny had picked up the kid and dragged her downstairs out of sight from the escape path; holding her hostage intill he heard the front door shut. Abby, being the violent child she was, had kicked and screamed the entire time. Safe to say he had some bruises.

' _Damn_ , _'_ he thought. ' _I knew I should've picked paper.'_

"You didn't have to hog tie her like that. If you hadn't, you probably would have made it out unscathed. We only said distract her." Natasha pointed out to the pouting goblin in the backseat.

The 7 yr. old man child merely grumbled in response. "Yeah, but how else could I guarantee she would stay put while the rest of you were escaping? It's not my fault you guys took forever."

At that point, Nat replied back with an irked tone. "We weren't ready to go yet! Did I tell you to go immediately? I had to gather my stuff, Bucky had to pack and your daughter needed a change of clothes!"

Bucky let out a sigh of frustration, interrupting their bickering as she ended her call again. "Damn! Phish isn't picking up, I keep getting her voicemail."

Natasha glanced at her girlfriend next to her in the front seat. "She's not out of town again, is she?"

Bucky just shook her head "Not that I know of."

"Well, I wouldn't freak out too much, it's common for her to leave her phone lying around."

"Yeah I guess... Oh!" Bucky glanced up, suddenly remembering something. "About earlier, did Tim really tell you to get some work done?"

"Ah, no." Sonny admitted.

Realizing he had lied for her sake, Natasha grumbled. "Thanks Captain Underpants." The nickname was a bit of a long story, so just don't ask.

"You're welcome!" he chirped happily. "But you owe me one."

Nat gritted her teeth. She didn't mind owing favors... Except when it came to Captain Underpants. Owing him a favor meant that he had done something for her and that didn't sit well for her. And secondly, being in Sonny's debt, she could never guess just what exactly she would have to do in return. The man was just too crazy and spontaneous to know. That uncertainty caused the semi-red head a lot of worry.

"That does remind me though, I should probably tell Roadhog where I'm going." Grabbing his phone, the goblin went to contact him when... "Shit!"

Bucky turned in her seat. "What happened?"

Ignoring her, Sonny pressed the phone to his ear. "Hello? Joel, are you still there?"

Bucky just starred at her idiot brother. Had he seriously forgotten to hang up his phone call with Joel? Surely the Mau5 had hung up by now.

"Yeah, I'm still here Skrillz." Joel's annoyed tone rang back in the goblin's ear.

"Why didn't you hang up?"

Bucky's jaw dropped, glancing at Natasha to align their gazes. Both girls were thinking the same thing; ' _The skrillmau5 feels strike again'_

 _"_ Forget aboot that, what the hell is going on, eh?"

"It's nothing..."

"Like hell it's nothing!" Joel argued. "I've heard everything since Annie burst in, man. Why the fuck are people hiding in closets and hatching escape plans? And just who the fuck is Owsla? Is she your new girlfriend?"

"No way!"

"I don't believe you man."

"Mommy? Who are you talking to?" Owsla looked at her mother curiously, the man in question becoming more distressed as the conversation continued.

"Mommy? Shit Skrillz, did you kidnap a kid?"

"No of course not!"

"Tell me the truth dude."

Sonny glanced up at the two girls in the front seats pleadingly.

"No." Natasha shook her head. "We can't risk the government finding out."

"But-"

"She said no." Bucky glared at him seriously.

Sonny hesitated but finally sighed, resigned. "I can't Joel, I'm sorry."

"Can't? What the hell is that supposed to mean!"

"I just can't, ok? I gotta go... I'm sorry man... Talk later?" Sonny bit his lip worriedly.

"Oh we sure as hell will be. This discussion is not over." With that, the phone line died as Joel hung up on the other end.

Catching a glance at his crestfallen face, Natasha immediately felt guilty.

"Sorry Sonny. I know he's your best friend and all but you know the government records phone calls... especially international calls. And, if they find out about Owsla..."

"Yeah I know, don't worry about it. Besides, explaining we have an alien in the car would be way too complicated over the phone. Its not like he would've believed me anyways." the raven haired man shrugged but looked out the window, laughing it off. The fake smile he put on only increased the guilt Natasha was feeling.

An awkward silence befell upon the car. On instinct, Natasha reached out to turn on the radio before the light they were stopped at turned green. Although she had good intentions, the whole car grimaced instead.

"What the hell sort of crap is that?"

Nat scowled. "Probably some Justin Bieber puke." Regretting her decision, she turned the radio off. "Why don't they have a real EDM radio station! I've long thought there is a desperate need for one."

Bucky glanced at her girlfriend. "You could start one."

"Ha ha, very funny." Natasha rolled her eyes.

"No I'm serious." the blonde protested. "Didn't you take radio broadcasting in high school?"

Nat paused. "Well... Yeah but-"

"But nothing!" Sonny pipped up from the backseat. "You'd be perfect for it! You know three artists on the scene personally and you're dating the youngest 'button pusher' already." he laughed at the reference to Joel's constant insistence he wasn't a DJ.

"Yeah, I'll call it 99.3, The Baseline"

"See?" the goblin pounded on the back of her chair excitedly. "You've already got a name for it!"

"I was being sarcastic!"

"I wasn't." Bucky commented.

"I can tell." Parking the car, Natasha quickly unbuckled herself, hurrying to get out of the car. "Look, we can talk about this later, let's just get inside." she didn't have a chance to hear either of their replies, choosing to escape rather than wait. So she ran up to the one story red brick house before they could hound her further on the subject. Without even bothering to ring the door bell, she opened the door; unlocked as usual.

"Hi Oscar... Rex." the semi-red head greeted the dogs as they came scrambling to jump on her.

The household here had long ago become a second home to her. Mr. And Mrs. Laurie weren't Mr. and Mrs., they were mom and dad. To Natasha it was a place of peace and laughter she had never had before, a treasured part of her life. She even had her own key. However, the Lauries never locked the door during the day if they were home, so she rarely needed it.

"Phish?" Natasha called out. Not seeing her in the kitchen grabbing a snack, the next logical place was her bedroom. Walking down the hall to the door, warm memories flooded her mind. Smiling to herself, she pushed open the door to Phishie's cramped, messy, but comforting bedroom. By that time, Bucky had caught up with her. Pushing the door wider to accommodate moving past Nat, she burst into the room first.

They immediately spotted Phish laying on her top bunk, playing on her computer. 'Phishie' of course was only a nickname. Her real name was Aurora, but she had been the only freshman when their group of friends had been formed. Because of that, she had soon become Phishie. And even though Phish would become a senior this upcoming school year, the name was forever stuck. As for the spelling... Natasha liked being fancy sometimes.

"Phish!" Bucky exclaimed. "Why didn't you pick up? I've been calling you."

Phishie looked up from her computer to notice the two of them for the first time since they had bust in. She didn't even bother asking why or how. Those weren't the sort of questions she bothered with. Instead, "What's up guys?" was her reply. "I've been watching Markiplier so I guess I didn't my phone ringing."

Spotting her phone on the bottom bunk, Natasha added "Or because your phone was no where near you... again."

"Or that."

"Listen Phish, are your parents home?"

"Nope. They're out of town for the week to help my grandparents with something. Chris is staying here while they're gone."

"Perfect." Natasha let out a sigh of relief. Chris had work and when he wasn't working, he was out with friends or in the guest room constantly. The place would be practically empty. That would give them a week to figure out what to do. It wasn't all the time in the world but Nat would take whatever she could get.

"Look! I can fly!"

Natasha turned around just in time to see a blur of blue and purple whiz past the hallway into the living room.

"What was-?"

"Owsla, no!" Natasha shouted, hurrying after her. "No flying in the house!"

The semi-red head was relieved to see the child running around with her arms spread out; only pretending to fly. You know, because with an alien in the house, finding out it could actually fly was a real concern.

"Owsla, stop jumping on the couch. You could damage it or hurt yourself." she scolded.

"rrrrRRRROMMMMM!" Suddenly Captain Underpants burst in, also pretending to be an airplane. Well, now they knew where she had gotten the idea. The long haired man began chasing the little alien around the room and through the kitchen.

Natasha folded her arm. "Stop running in the house, Owsla will get hurt."

"What about me?" Sonny asked. "Aren't you worried about my well being too?"

"Not really." Natasha admitted.

Sonny made a pouty face but scooped up Owsla in his arms to prevent her from running into something.

"Anyone want to explain who that is?"

Natasha turned to see Phish peering curiously at the alien child Sonny was holding.

"An alien." Bucky stated simply, as if that was all the explanation needed.

There was a pause as the honey blonde blinked. "Ok," she shrugged and went into the kitchen "Food anyone?"

"Do you have Doritos by any chance?"

"I do actually."

Smiling, Bucky followed her into the kitchen to grab a snack.

"...but moooooom!" Owsla was whining. "I wanna play!"

"I know, but Nattie said we have to stop running in the house."

"Aww..." Owsla sulked but quickly brightened up as she turned towards the semi-red head. "Nattie! Pick me up!"

"Wha-? O...okay?" Walking over she grabbed onto the small child whose arms were already outstretched to her. Once on her hip, the alien whispered in her ear. "Nattie? Who's the girl with the big boobs?"

"Can't you identify her by some OTHER feature!" she exclaimed exasperatedly. It took a moment as the child blinked up at her to realize 'boobs' were the only body part she had learned to identify. "Here look, her skin is very pale."

"Pale?"

"Pale means close to the color white, see?" Natasha pointed at a white stripe on her shirt to demonstrate. "Now look at her skin."

"Oh!" Owsla nodded in understanding. "So who's the pale girl?"

"You can call her Phishie. She's a dear friend of ours so be nice to her, ok?"

Owsla nodded. "Ok!"

"Come on Owsla, let's play airplanes outside." Sonny urged.

Bucky, who, while eating her Doritos, had contemplated Sonny's current play-pretend airplane state, commented. "Shouldn't you be a train? Considering you actually own one of those?"

Sonny stopped momentarily to think about her statement. "I see," he then resumed and began shuffling around. "Chugga chugga, chugga chugga..." he yanked his arm up and down. "Choo! Choo!" in that way he continued through the room and down the hallway.

"I wanna play too! Wait for me Mommy!" After Nattie put her down, Owsla ran off after him. "Choo-choo!" she squealed, following him through the house.

"Oh, me too!" a certain blonde called out.

Soon Bucky had joined them and the three were chugging along as a human train.

Phishie stopped to consider the situation for a moment. "Did she just call him Mommy?"

"Yep." the semi-red head confirmed.

"Well ok then."


	9. Surprises and Disguises

The day had been positively exhausting. You would think Bucky would be used to a rambunctious kid; she had to take care of Abby all the time and she hadn't met a more hyper kid yet. But Owsla wasn't a human child so apparently all the usual rules had run away terrified. The worst part was, the day was far from being over.

Truth be told, Bucky positively adored children; which had come as a huge surprise to her girlfriend. But it was true, she had three younger siblings who she had practically raised and that was without counting Abby. Yet, not only was Owsla as hyper as all get out, the blonde could not shake the lingering feeling that something was off about the blue being... besides the obvious of course. Now that she had finally caught a break, Bucky finally allowed herself to relax against the back door as she shut it. Outside, her brother was pushing Owsla on the swing while Phishie swung beside her. With no other swing to swing on, the Winter Solider had seen her chance to escape inside for a drink.

Taking a water bottle from the mini fridge, she happily began chugging it down, the cool water refreshing her parched tongue. Her re hydration was suddenly interrupted by a phone ringing. Searching quickly, she found Natasha's phone ringing on the island counter.

Speaking of Natasha, where was she? The semi-red head had come in a while ago but never came back outside. So where had she gotten off to? Grabbing the girl's phone, Bucky set off to find her missing girlfriend.

Finding the bathroom light on, she opened the door. This particular bathroom had two doors that sectioned off the toliet and shower area so there was no way she would walk in on something, right? Wrong. Opening the door, she came in to the sight of her girlfriend bent over, clad in nothing but red and black stripped underwear.

"Hey." Nat greeted her. Although she had recognized Bucky's presence, she made no attempt to do anything... besides continue to dry her short hair with a fluffy blue towel. Which of course was why she was bent over in the first place.

"Um... hi?" Bucky swallowed a bit nervously. Why was she here again? The sight before her was a bit distracting to say the least. To give her credit though, anyone who walked in on their partner topless and bent over would be.

"Was there something you wanted Jack?" Natasha's voice snapped Bucky out of her thoughts that were very quickly slipping into the gutter. "You know, besides gawk at my half naked body like a horny teenager?" Although Bucky couldn't see it, Natasha was undoubtedly smirking.

The poor girl flushed. "You could at least TRY to be modest!"

"Why?" Her girlfriend asked oh-so-innocently as she stood up with purposeful slowness while she held the towel to cover her bare front. "You're my girlfriend and you can't see anything anyways because I'm covered. Are you telling me you can see through my legs to my chest when I bend over?"

"No!"

"Then who cares?" Natasha turned around to face her.

These were the sort of moments Bucky asked herself why she was in love with this girl. Not only did she have no shame with being nude in front of others but she was a tease. A most frustrating combination that drove her insane. Although she had a point, Natasha knew what she was doing, the damn tease!

"Besides," Nat continued. "This is my shower that you're interrupting. No one should have to be modest when they shower."

Before Bucky could chew her out for deliberately egging her on, Natasha's phone began ringing again which had previously stopped.

"Is that mine?"

"Yeah, it's the only reason I'm here in the first place."

Natasha raised an eyebrow as she took the phone from her. "Are you saying you _didn't_ want to see me naked?"

Usually the blonde would have come up with a perverted reply but she was too flustered by being thrust into the sudden situation so she just yelled at her girlfriend instead. "Just answer the phone!"

The semi-red head smirked but took the phone to heed to her girlfriend's request. Leaning against the counter, she answered it. "Hello?"

Now it was time for revenge. Standing behind Natasha, the blonde began to bite at her neck. _Just try to not embarress yourself on the phone, I dare you._ Two could play at this game. The squirming took place immediately but the blonde held on with a tight grip.

"Dad?"

Bucky stepped back immediately. What was Nat going to say to her parents! Revenge forgotten, she sat on the counter instead, watching the semi-red head in earnest worry.

"I'm at Phishie's, it was an emergency... Her parents weren't home and her dog got really sick so we took him to the emergency room... yeah, they're here now... Well I was gonna ask if I could stay over for a while. Oscar has to be on constant surveillance and I wanted to help... Yeah, I'll come get some stuff later... ok... I'm sorry. I'll make sure to call next time. Ok, love you." with that, Nat hung up.

Natasha's ability to lie on the spot would never cease to amaze her. "They believed you?"

"They'd never think something weird was going on if I was with Phish. I'm clear to stay for the rest of the week. They won't come looking for me for a while."

Now feeling ridiculous for being worried, Bucky regretted not continuing her revenge scheme. Of course she could lie her way out of it, it was Natasha. "Well get dressed..." And with that, Bucky left the bathroom, deciding to wait outside where her mind could stay clean.

When Natasha came out... well her style was unique to say the least. Her closet was a unique blend of steampunk, vintage and fantasy styles with everything from Victorian to renaissance inspired pieces. Today she was wearing a red shirt with leggings. The shirt was off both shoulders with short puffed sleeves and of course long length wise. Over top of that was a black vest with silver double buttons military style. The leggings underneath were black with white rose patterns on them, dissapearing into her black converse boots with red laces. The look was complete with various jewelry pieces including the diamond ring she had gotten from her mother when she was 16 that she never took off. And finally, on her head was a red headband covered in black lace with a ribbon of feathers and small charms, flowing with the curls in her hair perfectly as it dangled down.

"Is everyone still outside?"

Slowly the blonde nodded, too busy admiring the way the blood red highlights in Natasha's hair glistened while still damp. The red color had always contrasted nicely in the bouncy curls of the dark brunette. Bucky wasn't one to dress up or look particularly nice on an everyday basis; in fact her closet was mostly sweatpants and t-shirts with some athletic wear. However, that didn't stop her from appreciating when her girlfriend was looking all awesome on days like this.

Natasha smiled and grabbed Bucky's hand. Personally she had no shame in admitting that she dressed up sometimes to get attention... well for one certain person's attention in particular. To her, dressing up to feel sexy sometimes is just a part of being a girl because it makes you feel good... especially when a special someone can't stop starring. But her girlfriend would have plenty of time to stare later, right now she was dragging the blonde to go see what everyone else was up to.

It seemed everyone was finally all tuckered out, or Owsla rather because the others had been struggling to keep up with her all day. All of them were laying on the trampoline, breathing heavily when the couple arrived.

Smiling with an endearing look in her eyes, Nat approached the entrance of the trampoline net. "Are you tired Owsla?"

"No." The alien lied, eyes dropping as she layed there.

Chuckling slightly, Nat reached out. "Come her sweetie."

Following Nattie's instructions, Owsla crawled over with languish limbs to be picked up in Natasha's arms. "I'm going to put Owsla down for a nap... Sonny come with me."

The goblin groaned. "Why do I have to go?"

"Because she's your daughter! You're responsible for her well being!"

Unable to argue, he followed the semi-red head into the house. Bucky watched them leave before climbing onto the trampoline to bother Phishie.

"Owsla seems to like me well enough." Phish offered in order to start a conversation.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, she's pretty hyper, isn't she?"

"That would be an understatement."

They laughed softly before continuing to catch up. For the past year between touring with her brother and working on her own career, Bucky hadn't had a lot of time to chat. The time she did have was usually devoted to her girlfriend since she was the hardest to be away from but she had missed her friends terribly too. Part of her was afraid she had fallen out of touch with them. Soon however, they were back into their characters as Jack and Aurora, two bickering siblings that refused to admit they really loved each other.

...

It was hours later. Wasting the day away had been easy with Owsla on the rampage, the little one's energy never ran out. But now that the gang was too exhausted to do much else, they were all laying down and looking at the ceiling of the inspiration room, bored. Sonny's stomach growled first.

"I'm starving." Bucky whined.

"Dude, It's my stomach that just growled."

"That doesn't mean anything because you guys are the same person, remember?" Phishie reminded them from the bottom mattress of the day bed where she was sitting.

"Oh yeah, that's a thing..." Bucky mumbled. It had always been a long running joke that Bucky and Sonny were really two halves of the same person considering they were so similar. Currently the two halves were laying on the top mattress of the day bed, sprawled out like they were dead.

Natasha rolled over from her spot on the floor. "My stomach is trying to eat itself."

"I told you we should have gone to McDonalds for coffee and fries!"

"Bucky, we have an alien."

"That's not MY fault."

Nat sighed in exasperation. How was she the only one who understood the predicament they were in? If the general public found out about Owsla things would get bad... very bad. Imagining all the ways this could go horribly wrong made her head hurt. Alien enthusiasts would go nuts. What if someone tried to kidnap the little alien? She could end up with some nut job. Or how about her becoming some lab rat or weapon for the government? How about people being afraid of her? If Owsla was exposed to the public, how many people would try to hurt her? Or even the rest of them for being associated with Owsla. Nat glanced up at her girlfriend. She didn't want anyone to harm her... If Bucky died... Nat shook her head vigorously. She couldn't bear to think about it.

"If we're all hungry, why don't we go to CiCi's?" Phishie broke the uncomfortable silence, focusing the attention back on everyone's growling stomachs.

"Again, you guys are forgetting about a certain alien in our care."

"Well why don't we just disguise her?" Bucky suggested.

"She has four arms."

"If theatre can make humans look like aliens, I'm sure we can make aliens look human." Phishie pointed out.

"Well..." Natasha faltered. That was true but they didn't have master skills. They were still a high schooler and recent graduates from high school. Alfredo pizza from CiCi's sounded really good right now but if they got caught...

"Come on Nat!" Phishie pleaded.

"PLEASE!" A chorus of whines sounded from them all.

"But-"

"CiCi's, CiCi's, CiCi's!" Sonny began to chant and soon Phishie and Bucky had joined in.

"Ok, ok-" Natasha conceded to defeat.

"YAY!"

"If-!" She continued. "You can come up with a viable disguise."

There was a pause of daunting silence.

"We can do that."

"Yeah." Phish nodded in agreement.

"Come on Owsla," scooting off the bed, Bucky scooped Owsla up off where she had fallen asleep on her girlfriend. Then, holding her awkwardly from underneath her arms, waddled into the bathroom. "Let's go Phishie."

"Coming." Grabbing various items from the costume closet, she followed her friend into the bathroom.

It was about fifteen minutes later when Owsla came running back in, crying. "Nattie!" she wailed, flinging herself into the semi-red heads arms.

"Done!" Phishie exclaimed happily from the doorway. Behind her, Bucky was slumped against the wall, looking exhausted.

Sonny glanced up at them concerned for the well being of his daughter. "What did you two DO to her?"

"She's a fighter."

"Well," Phish conceded. "Maybe if you had explained what you were doing first-"

"It's not my fault she's difficult to dress!" the blonde protested.

Natasha's attention was brought to Owsla as the little alien stood up from Nattie's hold and wiped her eyes. Sonny, who had gotten off the day bed, crouched to be eye level with her. "You look adorable!" he commented in awe. Wrapping her in a tight embrace he continued. "Promise Mommy you won't ever grow up and stay little forever!"

Natasha meanwhile began to asses the disguise. First they had bound her extra set of arms to her side. Nat cringed in sympathy. That couldn't be comfortable, no wonder she was crying. With a sigh however, Nat knew it had to be done and was a smart move on their part. Then they had dressed her in the pirate night shirt which made a lovely little dress instead on her. To cover most of her blue skin, she had a coat which became a dress coat on her, knee high socks with marry janes and a little pair of white gloves. The look was completed with a hat on her head to hide her ears.

Sonny was right, she DID look adorable.

"Nice work guys."

"Does that mean we can go to CiCi's now?" Bucky almost pleaded.

Natasha sighed. "Yes it means we can go to CiCi's now."

"YAY!"


	10. BONUS CHAPTER 10

"Hey Nattie? What's that?"

Natasha stopped short of putting the snack in her mouth. Setting it down, she looked at Owsla. "It's called Pocky. They're a snack made in Japan. It's chocolate covered biscuit sticks."

"Pocky?" Sonny looked up from making a sandwich in the kitchen.

"Oh!" Phishie's eyes lit up in recognition. "I've heard of those. Isn't there some sort of game you can play with it? I think Markiplier played it once..."

"Really?" Sonny jumped up and down excitedly. "Let's play!"

"Uhh..." Natasha glanced at the man worriedly. Surely he wasn't serious.

"Oh, can we Nattie!" Owsla begged beside her. "Can we? Can we? Can we, pleeeeeeaaaaase!"

"Yeah Nattie, please?" Sonny agreed.

Bucky looked up from her own lunch. "What's the deal Rose? Why not just let them play?"

"I really don't think you guys understand what the game is about."

"If you don't wanna play, just show us how and we'll play by ourselves." Phishie reasoned.

Natasha realized that her friend was trying to be diplomatic but she was pretty sure no one actually wanted to play this game. Not after they found out what it was of course. Besides, this was supposed to be lunch. Natasha did NOT want everyone's lunch time being interrupted by a huge make out session between all of them like some god forsaken orgy and- oh god. She shut her eyes closed. NOT WITH THESE PEOPLE! Stop thinking about it! These where the times when living in the gutter backfired horrendously.

"Look guys, it requires two people." Surely that would be discouraging.

"Then I'll play with you."

The gang looked up at the voice from the other end of the room. Joel was still making his lunch in the kitchen. Currently, he was non nonchalantly snacking on a bag of chips.

Natasha just met his gaze with an annoyed stare. "You obviously don't know how to play." she concluded. If any of them knew the nature of this game the only one volunteering would be Bucky and she didn't do PDA so that was out of the question.

"Sure I do," the Mau5 swallowed a mouthful of chips before continuing, "I've played it before, so has Sonny... he was probably just too drunk to remember."

The look on the goblin's face confirmed it as he looked at his best friend confused. "I have?"

"He has?" Nat stared at him in shock. "With who... you?"

Joel slammed his chip bag down on the counter, caught off guard by the sudden question. "Don't get any ideas!"

Natasha supposed she should refrain from telling him her mind was way past that point. Oh well, he's the one who said it. Besides... was that red in his cheeks blushing? Yeah, he was. Smiling secretly to herself she decided not to mention it and return to the task of convincing everyone NOT to play this game.

"Well forget it. There's not way I'm going to demonstrate the game with you."

Joel narrowed his eyes. He saw that smile from a mile away. Time for some good ol' revenge, eh? "Why? Too chicken?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"I thought you were demisexual so what would it even matter? ...Unless you have feelings for me?" The Mau5 smirked like an asshole.

"Of course not!"

"Oh I get it, you've been with a girl so long you've forgotten how to kiss a guy... are you really that gay?"

Turning her chin up Natasha glared at him. "My hair is straighter than I am."

"Then I guess you just kiss like a fish then." He made his best fish face.

Phish took it upon herself to look mock offended. "Well that's kinda rude..."

That was it. Natasha broke. That stupid troll knew how to push her buttons just right. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew he was manipulating her but DAMN him, she didn't care.

"Fine!" Natasha balled her fists in anger. "If you are going to insist so badly, get over here and we'll play. Right here. RIGHT NOW!"

"Okay." the Mau5 man calmly walked over, smirking like the asshole he was because he had gotten what he wanted all along. Bastard. "First things first, we've got to decide how we'll all play."

"There's 9 pieces of Pocky left."

"Well six of us, so I guess we'll all pair up and play 3 rounds." Joel stated.

"We could pair up by the use of matching cards." Phishie suggested, holding up a card deck they were going to use to play 'Bullshit'.

"What's the punishment for chickening out though?" Everyone looked around the room as if trying to decide who would chicken out.

"Come on," Bucky continued. "We all know some of us will, what's the incentive to play?"

Taking all of the questions into account, they decided to take a moment to decide how to play. With 9 pocky sticks they would play 3 rounds. Each round, each pair would be decided by drawing cards at the beginning of the round. The cards, which had been previously chosen from the deck, would be the following: Aces of spades and diamonds, the 3's of spades and diamonds and the 9's of spades and diamonds and one Joker card. The round would start in sequential order. The aces would go first, then the 3's, and finally the 9's. The Joker card would add an extra twist. If someone got the Joker card, they would choose a new partner for whoever was left without one. The winner of each match got a free pass to force the loser to do one thing in the near future. Anyone who chickened out would receive a punishment decided by everyone else. And besides these rules, anything goes; nothing was off the table. The anything goes rule was enough to strike fear into all of them. Everyone here was mischievous in their own way... and downright evil if they desired... (cough cough Alexander Pierce cough cough). And so, the game began. Since Joel had already challenged Natasha, they would go first this round before anyone picked cards.

"You ready, asshole?" Safe to say Natasha was pissed off. Unknowingly, Joel had stabbed one of her few weak points. No one insulted her ability to kiss. Holding back a smirk, she held the stick between her lips.

Joel didn't bother retorting. Walking over to where the girl was standing, he bit the other end. Thankfully it wasn't difficult since they were almost exactly the same height. (Natasha was 5' 8" (AND A HALF!) and Joel was 5' 9"). If Natasha's eyes could shoot lasers, Joel would have been dead and diced. Luckily, she didn't have that ability though and he remained perfectly fine in one piece. Ignoring her glaring looks, he calmly began to chew his way to the center. Purposefully, Natasha chewed little bites at a time while Joel was taking huge bites, resulting in his face coming closer at an alarming rate.

At this point, people were starting to comprehend just what exactly they had gotten themselves into... well, most of them anyways.

"Dude, you can't just keep going like that, you're gonna end up kissing her." Sonny looked at his best friend like he was crazy.

Bucky slapped her forehead exasperatedly. "That's the point, idiot."

"Oh... wait, WHAT?"

And that's when they met up at the middle. Joel, taking the bite solely with his teeth to bite her lips as he moved away to take the winning piece with him. Now the teeth were purely a tactic to piss her off, but she was counting on him doing some asshole move. And so, with a smirk and no hesitation, she pulled his neck towards her and slipped her tongue right on his teeth into his cheek. Using the shock to her advantage, she easily slide her tongue over his own and stole the pocky right out of his mouth. Stepping away, she proudly showed it to him between her teeth before chewing it. Smirking, she held a middle finger up at his still stunned expression.

"I win."

The semi-red head sat down calmly to the expressions of shock all around the table. "Who's next?"

"I am! I am!" Owsla held up her 3 of diamonds card.

There was a moment of silence as they waited for the 3 of spades to reveal him or herself.

"Well?" Bucky looked around irritably. "Someone speak up."

"I have the Joker, I guess the remaining card is the three of spades." Sonny took the card that hadn't been chosen and turning it over, found his suspicions to be correct. "Alright! That means I get to chose Owsla's new partner!" Grinning triumphantly he looked over at Nat.

"Oh no, don't-"

"I chose Natasha!" He gave her a full mega-watt smile.

"Jerk!" She hissed.

Sonny just shrugged. "I feel a little obligated, I mean you did just embarrass my best friend. He looks kinda traumatized."

Natasha glanced back at the man in question. It was true. The poor Mau5 looked like he had been bitten by a cat. Currently, he had one hand over his mouth, still trying to comprehend what had just happened. He obviously had not been expecting such a move.

Bucky smiled a bit, proud of her girlfriend. "He's an idiot, my girlfriend is fucking black widow, did he really think he would get away with pissing her off?"

"Hey, I can hear you all you know."

"With those huge Mau5 ears sticking out of your head, it would be sad if you couldn't..." Nat muttered.

"Hey!"

They were saved from further confrontation though as Owsla stepped up to the plate, ready to play. Walking over to Natasha's chair, she stuck her little chin out, a biscuit stick between her lips. "Bite it Nattie!"

Sighing, the semi-red head decided to just humor the little alien. Taking advantage of the fact that Owsla's eyes were closed, she took a huge bite from her own end before exclaiming. "Look Owsla! You won!" She pat the purple haired girl's head.

Owsla opened her eyes, face lighting up excitedly. "Really!" She squealed. Without bothering to ask how that happened, she ate the rest of the pocky and threw her many arms around Nattie. "I won!"

Joel, having finally recovered from his shock, sat down at the table with the rest of the gang. "So I guess that Bucky and Phishie are playing next?"

Sure enough, turning over their cards, Bucky had the nine of spades and Phishie had the nine of diamonds.

"I guess so..." Bucky muttered. Reluctantly, she put a chocolate stick between her teeth. Phishie on the other hand hesitated.

"I don't think I can do this."

"Come on Phishie, she's a friend. We all know neither of you mean anything by it, it's just a game for laughs." Sonny encouraged.

"But-" Phishie glanced at Natasha.

"Oh don't stop on my account, I'm not going to get jealous or something."

That was a lie but it was obvious that Natasha's pride wouldn't allow her to admit it, so the game continued.

"Alright..." Still hesitant, Phishie scooted closer and took a bite. Everyone watched as the two took turns biting from each end. In till finally...

"I'm too straight for this." Phishie backed away as the rest of the gang erupted into laughter.

"Does that mean you will receive punishment?" Joel raised an eyebrow.

"yeah..." Phish conceded defeat. "It does."

The rest of them smiled; already coming up with plenty of evil ways to punish their friend. But first, they had a game to finish.

"Alright, round two!" Gathering the cards, Sonny shuffled them quickly and taking one for himself, offered the hand to everyone to take one.

As everyone selectively chose a card, Natasha asked. "Alright, who has the aces to start?" looking, around for the next two victims to the cards of fate.

"I got the ace of spades." Bucky flipped over the card to show the others.

Owsla jumped excitedly. "I have the ace of diamonds!"

Taking from her girlfriend's example, Bucky easily let Owsla win. Happily, Owsla chewed her stick of pocky and they prepared for the next round.

Joel spoke up next. "I have the three of diamonds."

From Phishie's pink face, Natasha could guess who had the matching card. Wordlessly, she passed the next pocky stick over. The game began slowly. Phishie was timid. She had already taken punishment so she couldn't afford to chicken out again. Meanwhile, Joel was hesitant to win either. Teasing Natasha was easy and not to mention fun because of all her weird reactions but Phishie was a really nice person he didn't know that well. Not to mention.. she was the youngest person here. Did that make him a pedophile? Joel frowned. Damn, why had he agreed to do this? He blamed Natasha. The stupid red head reminded him too much of a certain someone and the way they blushed and squirmed when he teased him. It was too tempting not to press his buttons. Truth was, he absolutely loved getting a rise out of Sonny. All the weird faces he would make and the unexpected rash actions he would take trying to prevent his embarrassment.

Meanwhile, while the Mau5 was too busy in thought, Phish used her brains to prevent the inevitable contact of lips against lips. Just as they were both about to take the last bite, she pushed on the end in her mouth forward with her tongue. Quickly removing herself, Joel, too wrapped up in his own thoughts, took both halves in his mouth instead.

Sighing in relief, the honey blonde sat back down. She had lost yes, but it was better than getting another punishment thought up by her mischievous friends.

Natasha congratulated her friend on her backwards victory. "Nice going." Honestly, she was impressed, the Phish has got moves.

"Alright my turn..." Natasha flipped over her nine of spades. "My partner is..." she faltered as she met Sonny's gaze, smirking at her from across the table.

No. There had to some mistake. She was NOT about to play with Sonny. Nah uh. No. Not happening. She checked the card and the facts again and again but could only come up with one conclusion: Sonny had the nine of diamonds.

Turning his card over, Sonny declared. "I have the joker."

Joel scoffed. "Again? That's so unfair!"

Immediately, Natasha felt relived. She didn't have to kiss Sonny. Thank goodness. "Alright who's my substitute partner!" She jumped up excitedly, ready for whatever as long as she could escape this fate.

"Me."

"What! You can't do that!" the semi-red head protested.

"Technically," Phishie intervened. "He can, it's not against the rules, didn't we say anything goes?"

"Phishie! I just complimented you! Whose side are you on!"

Sonny just smiled a shit eating grin. "The rules say I get to chose your partner, and I chose myself."

"But...why!"

"I'm gonna win, that's why. You'll have to do whatever I say right? Holding that power over someone who is so unusually mean to me would be fun."

Natasha just gawked at him, fighting a blush. "First of all, I am NOT mean to you..." (she ignored the looks from everyone else at the table that begged to differ) "But there's no way I'm doing this."

An evil glint appeared in Joel's eye. "Are you saying you'll take the punishment?"

It was then that Nat was rudely reminded that Joel was on his side. If she took the punishment, she had no doubt the troll would come up with something to embarrass her for life and grant Sonny's wish all at the same time. Then he would sell it to everyone else in such an irresistible way that everyone else would agree. She knew she would do the same for Bucky and Joel would undoubtedly do it for Sonny. These were the sort of things best friends were made for.

Hopeless, she glanced at Bucky pleadingly. Surely her girlfriend wasn't okay with this. "Are you seriously going to let me kiss your brother?"

The blonde just shrugged. "He's a good kisser, you should be honored."

"WHAT!"

"Besides, this is hilarious."

Natasha glared at Bucky. ' _Oh how your days are numbered my rubra stella'_ she thought.

"Come on, Nattie, let's play!" Adding Owsla's nickname for her just for extra insult, he gave a smug little grin and grabbing a pocky stick, put it between his lips.

Natasha took a deep breath, glancing at the other end like a death sentence. She could do this. She was Natasha fucking Romanoff. Right. She could pull this off. She could lose on purpose just like Phish did. Yeah that would work. Of course that would mean Sonny would win and that meant doing whatever his request was but... having Sonny coming up with the request on his own was a thousand times better than having Joel's input. What could the goblin possibly come up with anyways? He was four inches shorter and not intimidating at all... she caught a glance at the pocky end. Not... at... all... wasn't like he was the only family left her girlfriend actually gave a shit about that wouldn't put an end to their relationship. It wasn't like he was a million air that could probably kill her and get away with it if he for some reason didn't see her fit to date his little sister... not at all! (You may have noticed that Natasha is a worry-wort by this point)

Meanwhile, Sonny was waiting with puckered lips on the pocky stick, like he was already prepared to kiss her. "You gonna kiss me or not?"

Balling her fists and letting out a small scream Natasha calmed herself enough to bite the end. The sooner this was over the better. Sonny bit another piece in response and calmly waited for her to take the next bite. Reluctantly, she did. Slowly but surely the two of them neared the middle. Finally when it was Sonny's turn to bit the last piece, using Phishie's example, Natasha pushed the stick into his mouth as he took the bite. Finally she was home fre- Mmhfff!

Natasha's eyes were wide in shock as she stared at their connected mouths. For a small guy, he sure had a huge mouth! Sonny had managed to bite the rest of the pocky AND her tongue in the process. Too shocked to do anything, she just stood there feeling like an idiot as he kissed all the remaining pocky out of her mouth. Finally gaining some sense though, she managed to push him away with an exaggerated "BLEH!"

First things first, Natasha ran to the kitchen sink to wash her mouth out with soap... literally. Using the dish soap she coated her tongue in the disgusting, slimy, disinfecting liquid and used her fingers to scrub furiously at her mouth.

The rest of them were laughing their asses off.

"SHUT. UP!" Natasha yelled, bubbles coming out her mouth and foam all over her face. "You're despicable! Sonny, I HATE you!"

When everyone had FINALLY calmed down from laughing and Nat had returned from her hygiene spree (she had also brushed her teeth and washed her mouth with mouthwash), they began to pick out cards again.

"You really are talented Nat," Sonny commented. "Even when a guy wins, you find a way to make him feel like he lost."

Phishie snickered. "hash tag Sonny's mouth is diseased."

Natasha's blush hadn't calmed down yet still. "Shut up..." she grabbed a card bitterly.

Owsla was excited as she grabbed her card. "Me first! Me first! I got the ace of spades!"

Phish held up her card. "Well, I got the ace of diamonds, but..." she glanced at the small blue alien worriedly.

"Yea! Let's play!" Taking a pocky stick, she shoved it in between Phishie's lips and took a bite. The poor Phish was so surprised she barely had time to react as the little alien just kept taking bites from her end.

"Come on Phish, you gotta play!" Bucky encouraged.

"Uh..eh.." Not knowing what else to do, Phish took a bite and met Owsla's lips unexpectedly instead. Immediately Owsla leaped back at the contact as if she had been shocked, not having anticipated it. "Whoah!" She squealed. "Mom! Mom! Mom!" she leapt into Sonny's lap. "I had my first kiss mommy! Did you see, did you see, did you see?"

"Yes, yes, I saw!" He laughed at her.

Phishie meanwhile looked at the stick, still in her mouth, confused. Everything had happened so fast she had barely any time to internalize it.

"Well congrats Phish" Natasha said, glancing at the stick that was still in her friend's mouth. "You won."

"I... I did?"

Natasha laughed. "Yeah... okay, I'm next. I've got the three of spades." Immediately the semi-red head caught a Cheshire smile from her girlfriend. The blonde proceeded to turn over her card to reveal the three of diamonds.

"And I've got the three of diamonds."

Oh. Best round ever! Natasha smiled. This almost made up for having to kiss Sonny... almost. (Natasha had long dreamed about french kissing her girlfriend with chocolate on her tongue ;)

Putting the stick in her mouth, she walked over to her girlfriend and knelt on the ground beside her chair. This way, Bucky was above her instead of Natasha having to bend over ridiculously far to accommodate how short Bucky was (the blonde was only about an inch taller than her brother and Natasha would never stop teasing her about it)

The preamble wasn't that big considering neither one of them had anything to be shy about. They kissed regularly so they didn't really care. When their mouths met however it was a while before they moved away. They rest of the gang opted to look away for the sake of keeping a pure mind (because we can assure you neither of the girls currently french kissing were.)

"I win." Bucky moved away with what was left of the pocky stick, the tiniest crumb left in her mouth.

"I can not believe I just watched that..." Phish put her head in her hands.

"It's not my problem you didn't look away." Natasha pointed out.

"So that means the only pair left is Joel and Sonny... unless either of you have the Joker." Bucky glanced at the two men.

"Uh... no... I have the nine of spades..." Sonny started to blush as he turned over his card, refusing to meet Joel's gaze.

Natasha laughed. "Well that's too bad. It's pretty pointless for Joel to play you Sonny."

Sonny looked at her with red cheeks. "What does that mean!"

"Well... I just mean... the reward is pointless, he already has the power to make you do whatever he wants you to..."

"Nah uh!" Sonny protested.

"It doesn't matter." The troll spoke. "I don't have the Joker, so I have to play him."

"Ah maaaaaaaaan" Sonny whined. "Don't say it like that. Is kissing me really that much of a death sentence?"

"Dude, what are you talking about? Are you saying you WANT me to kiss you?" Joel raised an eyebrow at the goblin.

Sonny's blush would not go away. "I didn't say that!"

"Come on, lets get this over with, eh?..." Putting the last chocolate covered biscuit stick in his mouth he leaned over the table to Sonny.

An immense blush on his face, the raven haired man timidly bit the other side. Immediately a light blush dusted Joel's face but no one said anything knowing the troll would kill them if they did. Sonny on the other hand had his eyes shut tight, taking smaller and smaller bites towards the center in till he finally felt soft lips against his own. Uncertainly, he peeked one eye open to stare at his best friend's dark hazel eyes. For a moment he was taken aback by the look in them. Was that... surely he was only imagining the hazed look in- HMPH!

Sonny had seemly forgotten that he had the last piece in his mouth... and Joel didn't like to lose... especially NOT to Sonny. So he should have anticipated that pink muscle invading the cavern beyond his lips but he really hadn't. He didn't think things like this through. Not when his heart was pounding and he was shaking and holy hell he swore to god that he had never had a kiss this good... even if it was just a game. Wasn't like all his secret fantasies over the years were finally coming true. Not. At. All.

Joel finally pulled back after a longer-than-necessary kiss but he made a show of the tiny bit of pocky he had retrieved to prove he had won before leaving the table without further comment. No one else said anything either as they slowly found an excuse to leave. No one wanted to face the obvious sparks that had been flying through out the room in the last five seconds. The ones that had made us all fear the house would catch on fire. Sonny made his way outside to clear his head (probably with a cigarette) and Natasha began to clean up. Pilling the cards up she reached across the table to take the card that hadn't been used that round. The Joker. Damn this card, this card had forced her to kiss Sonny. Oh well. But... turning it over she saw it wasn't the joker.

The card that hadn't been drawn that round was the nine of diamonds.

Hey guys did you like the twist? Hehe! Anyways, we're back on with the story next chapter! Remember, these bonus chapters have nothing to do with the actual plot and the rest of the story will carry on like it never happened... but it was fun while it lasted right? :D See you guys next week!


	11. Bad Feeling Comfirmed

The gang was spread out in the booth, their starving stomachs sated with the endless buffet of pizza at CiCi's. On one side, Owsla was clinging close to her mother as she sat on his lap. Next to them, Phishie was taking up one forth of the table with her sketchbook. In the other seat, Bucky sat with her back against the wall, already haven taken the liberty of putting her feet in Natasha's lap.

"Rose, I think you have enough cheese."

Natasha looked up at her girlfriend "It's good this way."

Phishie pipped up, not bothering to even look up from her artwork. "Nat, you're basically having cheese with a side of bread."

Nat made a pouty face as she looked back at her meal. "There's some pepperoni in there too..." she had pilled her plate with hot slices of pepperoni Alfredo pizza... And then proceeded to top it with all the parmesan cheese its juices could hold.

"I can count 5 pepperoni slices total"

"Well... whatever its still delicious."

Catching her girlfriend's eye roll in the corner of her own vision, Nat gave the blonde's ankle a little tickle. Bucky visibly jumped in response, managing now to shriek in shock and discomfort. The face that glared back at her was positively murderous. When the blonde didn't take immediate revengeful actions, Natasha knew there would be serious retribution later... she just couldn't bring herself to care at the moment because had been driving her crazy all day... and not in a bad way. For now, Natasha decided to happily munch on her cheese with a side of bread.

"Open up Owsla, here comes the train... Chugga chugga chugga chugga..." the spoon of goop landed safely in Owsla's little mouth. "Choo-choo!"

For Owsla's dinner, they had brought the rest of the pod goop since it was the only thing the alien had asked to eat so far, thanks to the unshrinkafication process or whatever it was called. Bucky watched as her brother fed the thing. The thermos they had brought it in was Abby's so it was all pink with flowers. The blonde had seen her brother in many weird situations before... But she was pretty sure alien in lap with flower power thermos acting like a mother hen took the cake.

Sonny wiped Owsla's face to where some pod goop was dribbling down her chin.

"Careful!" Nat warned. "You can't rub too hard or the makeup will come off."

"Oh yeah..." noticing a blue spot, Sonny smudged the foundation back into place.

Although a lot of her blue skin was covered by the clothes she wore, her face had still been a huge concern. Thanks to Natasha's knowledge of makeup however, she was easily able to cover it up with some foundation and concealer. This way little Owsla could go outside as long ad the makeup stayed in place.

Bucky sighed as she watched her brother play mommy. When she thought about it, Natasha was right. Owsla had never given her reason to be suspicious of the little alien. Still, no matter how much she tried, the young DJ could not get that nagging feeling off her mind.

"Finished."

The gang looked up as Phishie leaned back in the seat to stretch, muscles cramped from being hunched over her latest masterpiece. The gang looked over to see her creation.

"Look Owsla!" Sonny pointed at Phishie's sketchbook. "It's you!"

Bucky examined the sketchbook and sure enough, there it was. The drawing had perfectly captured the adorable being's charisma with a huge smile. In the drawing Owsla seemed to be running towards you, all four arms spread wide, most likely playing airplane. Behind her a small figure seemed to be running after her who Bucky assumed was her idiot brother.

"Phishie!" Nat exclaimed, jumping up out of her seat.

"Rose!" Bucky in turn exclaimed, her feet falling out of her girlfriend's lap, the sudden movement almost sending her pasta flying.

"Phishie, I told everyone to be careful! Drawing Owsla in her true form is NOT careful."

The gang looked at her, shocked at her sudden outburst. Phishie meanwhile, shrunk back in her seat a bit. Natasha was _mad._ Phish, unlike Bucky, had never clashed heads with her before. Bucky cringed in sympathy for her friend. It was true Bucky and Nat fought often but Rose had always told her she had never been truly mad at her before. Bucky hadn't really understood what exactly that meant till about a year ago, the first time she had legitimately pissed her off.

That time, Bucky had made the mistake of saying Natasha's phone call with her was a "waste of her time". She hadn't actually meant it, she was just busy and stressed out but Nat had made sure she regretted it. The red-head had refused to talk to her for a week and whenever she attempted to talk to her, Rose would excuse herself saying she "didn't want to waste Bucky's time". When she finally did talk, Nat screamed at her for five minutes, angry tear spilling down her face.

Yeah... You didn't want to piss Rose off. (little did Bucky know she had gotten off lucky)

Acting quickly before Rose could blow up and say something she would regret, Bucky grabbed Natasha's hand, pulling her to sit back down. "Rose, calm down. No one will find out. Look qt Sonny, people draw him as an alien all the time and no one thinks he's extraterrestrial. You're being irrational."

"That's completely different!"

"How?"

"Because those actions don't potentiality endanger all of your lives!" With that, Natasha stormed away on the verge of tears. Watching her go, an awkward silence befell upon them all.

As the seconds passed, it dragged on and on. At this point, it would take an idiot to break the ice. Luckily, they had one

"So who's going to go get her?" Sonny asked, looking between the two teenagers.

"She's just over reacting."

"Yeah but if nothing else, she's kinda our ride home." he argued.

"Can't you just call Roadhog?"

"Can't. It's his day off and he texted me earlier saying he was busy."

"Doing what?"

"Wouldn't tell me." Sonny pouted.

"Why don't you do it Bucky? You've fought with her the most so you should know what to do." Phishie pointed out.

"You're the one who made her mad in the first place!"

"Yeah, but, isn't emotional support sort of like, part of your job as her girlfriend?"

"She has a point." The goblin admitted.

"Sonny!"

"Bucky." Sonny stared at her seriously. "Stop acting like you don't care and go after her. She's probably already feeling guilty."

Bucky stared at him for a long moment before sighing. She hated when he was right about this stuff and... He always was. Having watched from the sidelines through every fight Rose and her had, he knew exactly what to do and what was happening. Sometimes when the two of them where being particularly stubborn, he'x yell at both of them till they were friends again.

"Uh... guys? Where did Owsla go?"

The siblings glanced at the honey blonde for a long moment before looking back at Sonny's lap. It appeared he had misplaced something. A certain blue, four armed, mau5 eared alien something.

"Ah!" Sonny shrieked in shock. "My child is missing!" A few customers sent questioning glances their way.

"Shut up!" Bucky whisper-yelled. "Do you want the whole restaurant to start panicking?"

Phishie got up first. "I'll go look for Owsla. Sonny, stay here in case she comes back. You-" she said, pointing at a certain blonde. "Can go after Natasha."

"But-!" Bucky groaned as Phishie left, leaving her no choice but to go after her girlfriend. After grabbing a cinnamon roll (because no one should have to go man hunting hungry) she scanned the restaurant for any sign of the brunette. Suddenly a certain navy hat stood out against the crowd. It was Owsla! Bucky smiled to herself. She wouldn't have to find Nat if she got to Owsla first.

"Owsla!" Bucky pushed through the crowd trying to catch up with her. "Owsla?"

Bucky looked around frantically. She had _just_ seen her! Where could that walking blue thing have gone? Turning around again, Bucky watched Owsla walk down the hall to the restrooms and push open the ladies room.

"There you are..."

Making a mad dash after the child, Bucky caught the door before it shut all the way.

"Found-"

"Nattie?"

Bucky faultered as she watched the alien cross the room and hug Natasha's leg... _she was going after Rose?_

"Nattie!" Owsla tugged on Natasha's shirt. "Answer me!"

At first, Bucky found it strange Nat wasn't answering the child... in till she realized she _couldn't_. A gag like noise filled the room as Nat attempted to throw up and began gasping for air as she resumed crying. Bucky could see the glisten of tear splattering her hands that were clutching the porcelain sink beneath her for dear life. A conversation with Phish from a while back struck her like a lightning bolt.

 _"Phishie, tell me about these panic attacks."_

 _"She told me not to tell you..."_

 _Bucky rolled her eyes. "Which is exactly why you're going to tell me."_

 _"She'll start crying and it will seem like everything is normal in till she stops breathing. She told me she literally forgets how. Eventually the only way she can breathe again is involuntary puking. Then she'll cry in till it happens again. It just keeps going till she calms down."_

 _"...and how long does that take?"_

 _"Depends. She stopped telling me about them but I don't think that means they stopped happening..."_

Bucky could only watch as the vicious cycle of choking, crying, and dry heaving continued. She felt like somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew what to do. But here, in the middle of it all, she couldn't remember. All she could do was stare as the scene played out in front of her, watching as someone she cared about seemingly chocked to death.

Owsla hugged Natasha's legs. "Nattie? What's wrong? Please tell me."

Natasha struggled to get out the words but eventually managed to choke out something in between sobs. "I... I can't... lose them," she took a deep breath, trying to calm down but it only lead to hyperventilating. "They"re so... important... to me."

"Am I important to you Nattie?" the child blinked up at Natasha's crying figure above her.

"Yes!" Nat cried. "Karmina, Aurelia (phishie)... even Sonny, and most of all Bucky."

Finally, Nat's shaking limbs couldn't hold her up anymore and gave out. Natasha slowly crumpled to the bathroom floor. Owsla only continued to hug her but this time, around the neck.

Suddenly, Bucky felt her spine crawl. Something had changed. And Bucky had a very bad feeling about it.

When Owsla spoke up again, there was an odd glow in her eyes, her voice coming out much more monotone than usual "You've sacrificed a lot for her... your heart has changed."

Was it just Bucky or did Nat seem a lot calmer? She wasn't chocking anymore. She wasn't gagging anymore. It was as if Natasha had had a normal crying fit the entire time.

"What are you so worried about Nattie?"

"There are so many things that could go wrong if people knew about Owsla and while I want to protect her, I don't want anyone to get hurt because they did something stupid!" Nat's outburst set off a whole new round of worried crying and fresh tears down her face. "Don't any of them understand what could happen? How do I protect what's precious to me when I'm so weak?"

"You're not weak Nattie. And everyone knows what danger they're potentially in. Don't worry, it'll be alright."

As Owsla talked Bucky watched Rose's breathing become slower, her grip become steadier and her sobs quiet.

When Rose looked up, she could see the dazed, trance-induced look on her face.

Bad feeling confirmed.

Remembering that there was this thing called legs useful for this thing called walking, Bucky pushed open the door.

"Rose! Are you ok?"

When Natasha looked at her, her face was calm and bright. All traces of her crying fits were gone.

A warm smile spread across her peach features. "Yeah I feel a lot better... Why is Owsla here?"

Bucky narrowed her eyes. Did she not remember what just happened?

Slowly Natasha stood up, the little Owsla cradled in her arms who had fallen asleep. "Thanks for coming after me..." putting a hand at the back of her neck, she pulled her girlfriend into a warm kiss.

And that was that. But Bucky couldn't tell if she was imagining the tingle that permeated the warmth of Rose's hand.


	12. Guns and Roses

During the ride home, Natasha had apologized to everyone for running off and explained to the rest of the gang why she had freaked. Although they all agreed Phishie's drawing wouldn't put them in any danger, they all promised to be more cautious in the future. After getting everyone to agree to a meeting tomorrow discussing just what that implied, Natasha felt much better.

Sonny hummed quietly to himself, looking out the window of the car. Being the workaholic he was, he couldn't get a new song idea out of his head. Not that he would want to, he was quite enjoying the sequence of beats and bass forming in his mind. However it was making him more anxious to get home so he could start working on it before he could forget it. Impatiently he bounced his leg up and down as the car drove though the winding roads of Mansfield. He had just finished a tour with his sister about a month ago so he had been taking it easy, but after thinking about it, he felt the need to get back to work. I mean sure it was impossible to get Sonny to stop completely, whenever he had a minute he would work a bit on something, but he realized he hadn't worked in the studio seriously in a while. Besides... It wasn't just him anymore...

Sonny glanced over at the new addition to his family. Owsla was fast asleep in the backseat, leaning on his side. He smiled warmly in the darkness of the car. He wasn't sure how but the small alien had really made a place in his heart already. Placing his arm around her, he kissed the top of her head softly.

A daughter huh? That wasn't anything he had ever thought about. Family life didn't really suit the DJ life style. He would be away all the time on tour and he knew that was no place to take a kid. He had refused to take Bucky for the longest time for the same reason. Who would take care of Owsla while he was gone? Sub consciously his eyes drifted to the semi-red head in front of him. And he immediately focused them back out side the window guiltily. It was true Natasha was the most responsible person he knew that wasn't on tour all the time, but that would be asking too much. I mean, Owsla really did love her a lot which was painfully obvious but still. Well Natasha was really protective of her considering what had just happened earlier so he was confident he could trust her but... Uuuuh... No.

Besides, what exactly was Natasha to him anyways? Well Sonny would like to think of her as a friend considering she was kinda like, dating his sister. Sonny frowned. He guessed his real question was what the fuck did Natasha consider him? Sometimes it seemed like it was all cool but then she'd bite back at him. I mean, what was that all about?

He really did not get women. Yet looking around the car he realized he was surrounded by them. Damn, where was Joel when he needed him? Oh yeah, Canada. He glanced at his sister. He wished he could trust Owsla's aunt with his daughter. Hahaha this made Bucky and aunt. He tried to hold back a snort. No, Bucky didn't really like Owsla for some reason, that much was obvious, plus once her music career hit off she would be on tour all the time too. Sonny frowned. Why didn't Bucky like her? He would have to do something about that...

Suddenly, the headlights turned off and everyone was slammed back in their seat as Natasha started backing up the car.

"Rose, what the hell?" Bucky looked at Natasha confused. "Phishie's house is right there."

"The garage door has been jacked open."

"What?"

Natasha kept her voice calm and clear as she explained, trying not to cause a panic in the car. "A car jack was used to force open the garage door, it's all bent in the middle. The porch lights are on too and I specifically remember turning them off."

"Which means someone must have broken in..." Sonny muttered the obvious conclusion that was weighing on everyone's mind.

"But it should be okay now, right? There isn't another car anywhere so they must have already left." Phishie pointed out, her tone more hopeful than anything.

"I wouldn't bet my life on it." Natasha's cold statement weighed in the air for a long moment. Quietly she continued to slowly back up the car out of the coldesac.

"Natasha, stop the car." the words were out of Sonny's mouth before he could stop them.

"What?"

"Stop the car."

"Are you insane?"

"Stop the car!"

Natasha stopped the car and turned to look at him. "Sonny, you can't go in there! Most likely whoever is in there is here to hurt you or Bucky. Or both!"

"My laptop is in there." he explained.

"But-"

"Natasha, if you left your writing journals in there would you be sitting here or going in there to get it?"

Natasha was silent. Music was Sonny's life just like writing was hers. And she knew the both of them would risk their physical life to keep the thing that kept them living.

"10 minutes in and out." with that she turned off the car.

Immediately Sonny made a dash for it. The truth was he had all of his stuff backed up, he broke too many computers to depend on just one. The real reason he was going was because he knew Natasha was right. Someone had probably found out about him coming to Mansfield. It was his fault all of them were in danger. He remembered Roadhog telling him he had to be more careful about his visits here and he hadn't listened. Now, his family was in danger.

"Sonny!" a voice called out behind him as he reached the door. "Wait up idiot, don't go in alone!"

"Bucky, get back in the car." Sonny turned towards his sibling, irritated. When the person you're trying to protect shows up to put them self in danger anyways, it kinda defeats the purpose.

"No way am I letting you go in without me." she argued back.

"My thoughts exactly."

The siblings turned to see a certain semi-red head standing on the porch with them.

Get back in the car Natasha, _now._ " Bucky warned, an edge in her voice making it clear she was about to lose it. For everyone's sake, Sonny really hoped Nat would just head her warning.

But that would just be too simple right? Because Natasha was stubborn like that.

"I'm not going anywhere besides inside with you." standing her ground, the semi-red head looked at her seriously.

"Natasha, if you do not go back right now, I will drag you and tie you to the car seat!" the blonde's eye were as cold and hard as her vibranium metal arm.

"I'm sorry, who has the gun here? That would be me."

"You have a what?" Sonny blinked. Was she serious? Surely she didn't actually have a gun?

But as Natasha lifted her right hand into the porch light they could clearly see the black piece of hardware. She definitely had a gun.

"That's illegal!" Bucky shouted.

"Like either of you are one to talk. Besides, it's not illegal because its a bb gun. I looked it up, I'm not stupid!"

"Why do you even HAVE a gun in your car!" Sonny exclaimed. His sister wasn't kidding when she said her girlfriend was full of surprises.

Natasha hesitated. "Well because... it makes me feel safer." it was obvious she wasn't telling the entire truth but now really wasn't the time to press it.

"Give me the gun and go back to car Rose."

Instead of replying, Natasha just pushed past and open the door, proceeding like a well trained cop.

By the look on his sister's face, Sonny could tell she wanted to yell at her but knew better than to risk it. If she did, it could alert someone inside and put them all in greater danger. So instead, they followed the semi-red head inside.

Efficiently, Nat began to clear each room, methodically searching for the potential intruder. Bucky meanwhile watched her back, ready to drop kick whoever came into view. It was actually pretty amusing. The blonde was actually slightly in the way but neither Sonny nor Natasha were going to mention it. Sonny knew Bucky felt like she should be the one protecting Natasha, not the other way around. Not that it wasn't obvious to see why. Bucky held an eighth degree black belt and was just an all around tough tom boy. Natasha on the other hand was a more girly, artistic type with a big heart. Still, Sonny was confident that she could hold her own... especially with that gun. Honestly, he felt a bit emasculated. As the responsible adult he should be protecting these kids. But Nat was right, the bb gun was the most effective weapon they had.

 _"Should have taken it from her earlier.."_ he thought.

Sonny felt a rubbing sensation on his leg. The sudden contact made him stiffen before the meow made him realize it was just Phishie's cat. Even in the dark he could see the outline of a black cat purring against his leg.

 _"That's strange,"_ he thought. _"I didn't realize Patches was a black cat."_

Moving on Sonny tripped. Flailing as he fell, he almost tackled Bucky to the ground.

"Seriously?" his sibling whisper-yelled at him. Rolling her eyes, she continued after Natasha who was clearing the kitchen.

What had he tripped on? Looking back the goblin saw a large black duffel. It looked strangely familiar to him, but why? He was pretty sure it hadn't been there earlier today. It it had, he probably would have tripped on it already.

"Clear." Natasha declared. "All That's left is the hallway and the rooms down there."

"Great, now give me the gun and I'll do it myself."

"What? No way Bucky, it's my gun."

"Give me the gun Rose." the blonde insisted.

"I can do it myself!" Nat protested, heading down the hallway before either sibling could stop her.

Sonny stopped at the entrance of the hallway before following them. He had caught sight of a nice baseball cap on the wall where Mr. Laurie's collection of canes hung. So Mr. Laurie wore hats now too? That's cool. Oh wait... It was a DeadMau5 hat. At the same time Sonny's heart lurched and sank. Why was Joel so mad at him? He guessed the mau5 really did have every right to be. He had a daughter now. Best friends should know about that sort of stuff. It was weird to find the hat here though. Phishie wasn't a huge EDM fan like the rest of them and he knew it wasn't Bucky's... he snickered.

 _"Maybe it's Natasha's."_

Not that she would ever admit it if it was. Without thinking, he slipped it on his head. It's not like it was making him feel better or anything. Following behind the girls again, he put his mind back in alert.

The first pair of rooms in the hallway were the guest room and bath. As the girls went to clear them Sonny stood guard against the rest of the hallway, still a little lost in thought.

He fingered the brim of the hat, thinking. He really should tell Joel but not only did he have difficulty finding out how to, he was scared to. What would Joel say when he found out he had a kid? And an alien kid at that. Maybe he should could go to Canada to talk to him... But then he remembered Owsla. How the hell was he supposed to travel with her? Not to mention she would need a passport.

It suddenly dawned on Sonny he needed to go to the bathroom. How much longer would they be checking for criminals? He really needed to go. Damn, he knew he shouldn't have drank so much but really who could help it when the rest of your party at CiCi's were taking way too long to find your alien child and a very scary girlfriend? He really hoped that would never happen again. Being forced to wait and do nothing while your kid was who knows where was a emotional rollercoaster he never wanted to ride again. Ever.

Maybe he should just go anyways. It's not like he was much help to the girls right now; he didn't have a weapon. But then he realized the bathroom light was on. Did they leave that on? Sonny couldn't remember.

"Hey guys?" he whispered loudly. "The bathroom light is on."

"What!" the panic in Natasha's voice caused him to jump a bit. "Those lights are automatic. Someone must be in there."

Charging past him, the pair positioned themselves on either side of the doorway, ready to break down the door.

"On my signal... 3..."

Somny narrowed his eyes. Something wasn't right here.

"2..."

He really didn't want them bursting in there for some reason, but why?

"1!"

And suddenly it clicked. "Wait!" he yelled out desperately. Lunging towards them, he managed to knock Natasha's hands aside.

 **BANG**!

She shot the counter instead and thank goodness she had. Sonny's intuition had been correct. There, in front of them all, stood a tattooed, half-naked man after a shower.

"Joel!"


	13. The Mau5 Burglar

Everything stopped as they looked at the tattooed man before them. Slowly they adjusted themselves to the fact that Joel was here. In front of him. In Phishie's bathroom. Taking a shower.

Joel on the other hand was trying to adjust to the idea that Natasha had almost shot him. "What the hell!" he shouted, looking between them all. "I'm just a guy trying to take a shower and then you start shooting at me!"

 **SMACK!**

The unexpected sound of skin hitting skin resonated in the room. In shock, Joel lightly felt the now red spot on his cheek. Natasha had slapped him.

All her adrenaline worked to fuel her anger as she stared him down, breathing heavily. "Don't ever do that again!" she screamed. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

Bucky reached out to put a hand on her shoulder tentatively. "Rose calm down. It's just your adrenaline speaking. Look, you're shaking. Let's go sit down and let it get out if your system for a bit?" leading her away, Bucky sent a death glare at the Mau5 over her shoulder that said "I' _m going to kill you later."_

For now, the girls sat outside the bathroom in the hallway as Nat tried to calm down her panic.

"Dude, you do realize the front door was open, right?" Sonny looked at his best friend bewildered.

"Now you tell me! After Roadhog and I spent so long jacking the garage door open too..."

"Roadhog?"

"Yeah, how else would I know where you were? He picked me up from the airport and dropped me off here, but then you weren't home so..."

"So you broke in" Natasha finished for him, her voice still bitter.

"Well I didn't want to wait outside, I had Meowingtons with me."

"That would explain the cat." Sonny mumbled.

Natasha stood, seemingly having reached some level of calm. "Look, I would've broken in too, I get it, but next time you better fucking call so we know it's you and don't start freaking the hell out, ya hear me?"

"Yeah yeah..."

"Anyways, I'd better go park the car and get Phishie and Owsla."

Bucky's head immediately snapped up. "I'm coming with you." Quickly following behind the red head, they walked down the hall to leave.

"Give me the gun."

"No."

"Rose-"

"I don't need you to protect me!" Soon the girls' voices dissapeared down the hall. And suddenly Sonny was very aware of the fact he was alone with Joel. A half-naked Joel. A very _attractive_ half-naked Joel. In a bathroom. Alone. Sonny quickly shut his eyes before his mind went wild and he started blushing. If he did that, Joel would want to know why.

"What are you doing Joel?"

"Well, I was trying to get dressed."

"What are you doing _her_ e?"

"Didn't I tell you? This conversation isn't over."

Sonny just stared at his best friend blankly. "You came all the way over here... into another country... because you were mad at me?"

Already prepared to answer, Joel nodded. "Yes. Wait, no!" Joel shook his head at the goblin before him. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?"

"I was worried, idiot!" Joel glared at him as he pushed past to get the shirt he had left on the counter. "My best friend is sneaking around and won't tell me whats wrong because the government records international phone calls!"

Sonny scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "You heard her huh?"

When Joel looked back at him, Sonny immediately regretted his words. The mau5 looked livid. "Yes! I did! So who is she? Who is this bitch you knocked up?"

"Wha-? I didn't knock up any bitch!"

Impatiently, Joel grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him. "Skrillz, I swear if you don't tell me what's going on, I'll fucking... Fucking drag you back to Canada and put you under house arrest or some shit. I don't know but I'll fucking lose it!"

Sonny was pretty sure the Mau5 had already lost it. "Alright, alright! I'll tell you just please! Put some pants on!"

Joel realized that Sonny had his eyes squeezed shut, face flushed and upturned to the ceiling. As to why, it was then that Joel realized his towel had fallen off and his lower extremities were sort of shaking everywhere. But he didn't care about Sonny's weird insecurities right now. Besides, they were both guys right? What was he acting so disgusted about anyways? He was attractive down there too. Any guy would be lucky to have a piece of him. Or girl. Yeah, girl. _Definitely_ a girl. He was NOT attracted to guys. Not even the really adorable guy in front of him. Wait. Why was he even thinking about this right now?

Joel resumed shaking Sonny by his shirt "I don't care about a loose towel right now!"

"Dude! My little sister, her girlfriend, and their best friend are on their way in here!" 'an _d my daughter'_ he added to himself.

Finally Joel stopped and instead started shoving Sonny out the door. "Fine! Then get out of my shower! And give me my hat!" Taking the Deadmau5 hat Sonny had found earlier, the Mau5 man slammed the door in his face.

Sonny leaned against the wall, a hand on his chest trying to calm down his heart. Geez, Joel had just gotten here and he was already giving him a heart attack. Though whether it was from the chaotic shaking of his body or the junk waved in his face (the image now permanently etched into his mind) he couldn't tell.

"Sonny, you okay?"

Sonny turned his head to see Natasha looking at him concerned. "I'm great, thanks."

Natasha gave him a skeptical look. "Riiiiiight."

"That better not be that bitch you knocked up!" Joel's voice shouted through the bathroom door.

"I didn't knock up anyone!"

"Why hello to you too Joel."

There was a moment of what Natasha assumed was ashamed silence. "Sorry Natasha..."

A moment later the bathroom door opened and Joel appeared. And Sonny was very aware of the fact that he was with Joel. A fully dressed Joel. A very _attractive_ fully dressed Joel. In a hallway. With company.

"Did you tell him?" Natasha crossed her arms.

Joel sent a glare in Sonny's direction. "Tell me what?"

"I'll take that as a no."

"Sonny." Joel warned.

"Alright, alright. Uh... well you see..." Sonny stammered. _Why was this so hard?_ "The reason I couldn't tell you what was going on over the phone is-"

The front door opened. "Mommy?" Owsla's voice rang out.

"Too late." Natasha sighed. She felt sorry for Captain Underpants, she really did.

Joel stared at the guilty looking, raven-haired man in front if him. "Mommy?"

Suddenly, Owsla charged down the hallway, the food seemingly haven given her a second wind. Sonny knelt down to embrace her in a hug as she ran into her arms.

"Mommy! Bucky hid the gun from Natasha but she said it's a secret so shhhhh!"

Sonny smilled at his daughter. "I don't think that's how secrets work."

Natasha turned to glare at her girlfriend. "Oh she did, did she?"

Bucky looked away, clearly guilty "tattle tale" she mumbled.

"Sonny...?" Joel re-directed the group's attention back at him. "Who's that?"

"Joel, this is my daughter Owsla"

"So... you knocked up someone 7 years ago?"

"I already told you, I didn't knock up anyone!"

"Then explain that!"

"She was sorta... given to me..."

"Given to you? Because you knocked up her mother?"

"No! I am her mother first of all! But can't you tell just by looking at her that she- oh."

That's when Sonny realized Owsla still had her disguise. The rest of the gang knew she was an alien but Joel saw a regular human child.

Natasha decided it might be time to intervene. "Joel, she's not human."

"Not human? What?"

Deciding it would be easier to show him, Natasha removed the hat from her head, releasing her Mau5 ears. "She's not human Joel. Her skin is blue too."

"Blue?"

Sonny, following Natasha's example, wiped the makeup from Owsla's cheek to show him, a vivid streak of blue appearing from beneath the tan. "She's an alien Joel. She crashed in our backyard last night. Natasha didn't want me telling you over the phone because of word got out about her..." Sonny held Owsla by her shoulders to face Joel, protective and apprehensive about his reaction. Would Joel hate him because he suddenly had an alien for a daughter?

Joel blinked at the child before him. Alright so she wasn't human... so she got to this planet in a UFO or some shit? Aren't aliens supposed to be green? Oh, well sometimes they were grey he supposed. But now, the goblin had adopted it. Skrillex, Sonny Moore, his best friend, was responsible for the well-being of a child.

Finally he spoke, "I can't believe you."

There was a tense moment of silence. Sonny clutched Owsla's shoulders tighter. He was going to hate her wasn't he? He knew it. His best friend would reject him and his daughter just because she wasn't born on his planet.

Surprisingly, he turned to Bucky and Natasha. "Jamie, Natasha... I am extremely dissapointed in the both of you."

The girls looked at him completely flabbergasted.

"Wha-? What did I do?"

"I could've seen this from Jamie but Natasha? How could you let this happen? How could any of you, Sonny included, be so fucking irresponsible?"

"It's not _our_ fault an alien landed in our backyard Joel!" Bucky defended her brother.

"Who gives a shit if she's an alien? She's a _child._ And, sorry Sonny, but there's no fucking way in hell you are responsible enough to take care of a kid!"

"I may be 100% in agreement with you here, but how the hell is this _my_ fault?" Natasha looked at him with a confused expression.

"If Jamie is going to dub you the mini me then you have to be responsible for the twin Skrillex idiots when I'm not here."

Natasha was at the point of face palming. It was true however that she was the 'mini Deadmau5'. Not only had Bucky given them all Marvel names, she'd also given them EDM artist equivalents as well. Aurelia was Dillion Francis and Bucky was of course Skrillex. However, Natasha had gotten stuck as Deadmau5. (she knew it was only because Bucky had a crush on her at the time because the only parallel she could draw between them was their foul language).

"But-"

"You need to take lessons from me because I never would have allowed Sonny to be in charge of a kid."

"I... fine..." he was right but still, just how exactly did she think she could prevent it? She didn't have that kind of power or abilities.

Meanwhile, Joel crouched down to look at the child in question. "So, you're still alive huh? That's impressive."

"Maaaaaaaaang! Why you gotta be so mean? I wouldn't kill my own child!"

Joel glanced at the goblin. "Never said you would do it on purpose but you're a fucking mess. You'd have an accident sooner or later."

"Well," Natasha admitted. "He _did_ almost drop her yesterday and then he lost her at CiCi's."

"You did WHAT!" Joel glowered at Sonny. "Your Owsla parenting privileges are now revoked intill further notice!"

"Wow Sonny, you can't hold or parent your child, that's just sad." Bucky snorted.

Taking Owsla's little gloved hand, Joel pulled her a little closer to him and away from the irresponsible idiot. "Hi Owsla, my name is Joel but some people call me Deadmau5. I'll make sure Sonny doesn't accidentally kill you, ok?"

Owsla's head cocked to the side. "Dead... mau5?"

"Yeah, but that's my stage name. You don't have to be all formal and shit with me."

"Joel... Zimmerman?"

Joel immediately stopped. "Yeah. But how the fuck did you-?"

Owsla smiled brightly and wrapped him in the biggest bear hug her little arms could manage. "Daddy!"

There was a plethora of different reactions around the room.

"How did I know this was going to happen?" Natasha sighed.

"Wait a minute, what!" Bucky exclaimed.

"Joel," Sonny glared at him. "We're getting a divorce!"

Joel meanwhile was flippin' the fuck out. "We're not even married! What the hell are you even talking about Skrillz? And someone please get this child off of me!" the poor mau5 had his eyes squeezed shut and face turned away.

"What happened to Sonny being irresponsible?" Natasha crossed her arms, amused.

"That didn't mean I wanted to be it's father!"

"Well there's nothing you can do about it. She's pre-programmed to regonize her parents however the aliens wanted her to. That's why she calls Sonny her mother." she smugly explained.

"So?"

"So?" Bucky glared at him. "What are you going to do Joel? Abandon your child?"

"She's not _my_ child."

"She is now."

"Just get her off me!"

Owsla looked at him wide eyed, tears beginning to form. "Daddy?"

"Come here Owsla..." Sonny scooped her up in his arms, sitting her on his hip.

"Mommy?" Owsla whimpered. "Does daddy hate me?" her lip trembled.

"Daddy doesn't hate you. C'mere... Shhhhh... " he held her head to his chest as she started to cry. "He's just tired from a long flight." Sonny glared at Joel with a murderous expression. Mamma bear was mad and out with a vengeance to protect his child. "Hopefully tomorrow he won't be such an asshole."

With that, Sonny went to go find his bed and put Owsla to sleep.

"You were right Joel. You should take lessons from me, I never would have made a child cry."

"Shut up Natasha."

"If you can't take it don't dish it."

"Look, I need sleep, what are the sleeping arrangements?"

"Well you're sleeping on the couch buddy."

"Bucky!"

"He's not sleeping with us in Phishie's room and Sonny definitely doesn't want him with him." she explained.

"Well... I guess you're right... where is Phish anyways?"

"She's eating in the kitchen."

"Oh."

"I'm going to bed. Goodnight Rose." with that, Bucky went into Phishie's room.

"Oh ok. Love you, goodnight..." turning into the bathroom, Natasha dug through the attached linen closet. "There should be some blankets in here..." she grabbed a few sheets she thought could be easily folded to fit the couch.

"Hey, where did everyone go?"

Natasha turned to see Phishie chewing on a turkey sandwich. "Bed."

"Oh. Okay then." Phish shrugged. "Goodnight Joel, goodnight Natasha." the two in turn muttered goodnight as she continued to her room, presumably to join the rest in slumber.

"Well come on, we'd better get you set up on the couch-" Natasha yawned. "I'm getting tired..."


	14. Orange Juice and Pod Goop

Sunlight peeked through Natasha's eyelids, beckoning her to wake up. Slowly the feeling of her limbs came into focus and she uncurled herself from Bucky. Careful not to wake the blonde sleepy soundly beside her, she climbed down from the top bunk of Phishie's bunk bed and stretched.

 _What time is it?_

Taking her phone from the charger, she looked at the screen. 10:21. Not bad for a summer day she guessed. Putting the cellular device in her pocket, she made her way to the kitchen.

There was nothing better than a hot cup of coffee in the morning... however Phishie didn't have a coffee maker. So instead, Nat took a sprite from the mini fridge and a hot pocket from the freezer.

 _"The breakfast of champions"_ Nat laughed to herself about the familiar phrase used by her friends. See, whenever the gang was at Phishie's house they tended to eat a lot of junk food which also included breakfast. The Breakfast of Champions was any junk food they ended up eating when they were at Phish's house. They were champions after all.

Looking over at the couch it seemed her "EDM artist equivalent" was still heavily passed out on the couch. The Mau5 was all sprawled out, limbs hanging off, blankets on the floor and was that... was that drool? Natasha walked over to get a better look. Yep, that was definitely drool. Gross.

Watching him snore, Natasha was her equivalent such an idiot? (because you are one...?). Nevermind the fact he had flown all the way to Texas from Canada, he had broken into the house. It's a felony called breaking and entering? It's pretty simple the title is literally how you do it. You break something, and enter. In this case, Joel had broken the garage door and entered Phishie's house. And all of this because he was worried about his friend... it was cute, really.

The problem was what had happened when he got here. Now he had to deal with being a father. Sonny had taken the role of motherhood like a phish to water... well the idea of it anyway. The goblin had a long way to go before he was actually motherly. But if Joel was anything like her, (as her 'mini Deadmau5' status claimed) it was going to be a lot harder. In her past, little kids actually used to scar the crap out of Natasha. Yet, every little child she had ever met adored her. It had taken a long time for her to adjust to them and eventually consider having her own someday. She guessed if she warmed up to them that meant there was hope for Joel too. Well, hopefully.

She was broken out of her thoughts by a groan.

"I need coffee."

Below her, Joel begin to stir just a bit but refused to open his eyes, knowing the bombardment of light that would be coming his way if he did.

"Hate to break it to you, but Phish doesn't have a coffee maker."

The Mau5 peeked a squinted eye at her. "What kind of household doesn't have a coffee machine?"

"The _phishi_ e kind?" Natasha smiled stupidly at her own joke.

Joel groaned. "Fuck!"

Natasha wasn't sure if his out burst was due to her lame pun or the lack of coffee... probably both.

"You could make a coffee run. There's a Starbucks nearby."

"Ehhh, I don't have the camera with me."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean that kind of coffee run. Besides I don't think Sonny wants to be in the same car as you right now anyways."

Joel sighed at the reminder of the recent hiccup in the relationship with his best friend."He's still mad at me, eh?"

"I hope that's rhetorical," Natasha said, making her way to the kitchen. "Not only is the answer obvious, you know him better than I do."

Deciding to make popcorn because why the hell not, Natasha put a bag in the microwave to pop. Above the constant pop of exploding kernels, she heard Joel exclaim.

"Owsla!"

Natasha turned at the sound of Joel's voice. There he sat, open mouthed at a certain blue alien _teenager._ Owsla had completed yet another stage of growth overnight.

But currently she had an angry pout on her adorable lips.

"Dad."

"What the fuck happened to you?"

"Joel!"

"I mean! Like... you're a teenager now!"

Owsla rolled her eyes like the reason was so obvious. "Yeah Dad, it's the unshrinkafication process."

"The what what? I didn't know about this!"

"Mom knew, and maybe if you weren't..." Owsla paused as she tried to come up with the right word. She decided to follow her Mother's example. "Weren't 'such an asshole' you would know too!"

Joel just gaped at the moody teen as she quoted Sonny. It was safe to say she had no idea what her words meant but still.

Hiding a smile, Natasha got out some cereal. "You want some breakfast Owsla?"

"Uh.. Sure.."

Natasha just grinned at the entire situation. She knew she had just been feeling sympathy for her EDM equivalent but she couldn't help giving him a hard time.

"You aren't very involved in your daughter's life are you?"

"I got here like 12 hours ago!"

"Wow," Natasha continued. "And you've been asleep for most of them. Shows how much you care."

"Yeah Mom was up all night working, what were you doing Dad?"

"Okay, first of all," Joel moved to stand at the opposite end of the island across from Owsla. "Never mind the fact that I was on a plane for six hours yesterday, Sonny is not your Mother, he's too irresponsible and I'm not your father either."

"If you're not my father, you can't make my life decisions!" Owsla fired back.

"But I'm the responsible adult here!" Joel pointed out.

The teenager shouted back at him in retaliation. "That's why you're my father!"

"But I'm not!"

Owsla's face fell, a crestfallen, hurt, puppy face on her features. "But Dad... You and mom love each other, right? That's why I'm the child created from your love for each other."

Joel starred at her stupefied sputtering as he tried to cover up his shocked blush. "Don't say unnecessary things like that!"

"Unnecessary? As in it's obvious?" Natasha muttered, snickering to herself as she retrieved her popcorn from the microwave. With it, she watched the drama before her unfold like a movie.

"Forget it! I don't even understand why I would want you to be my dad! You couldn't be a good dad even if you tried!"

That sentence set off the inevitable shouting match between the two of them as they slowly leaned towards each other, yelling.

"I could be a great dad if I wanted!"

"Prove it!"

"Maybe I will!"

"Then you're my dad!"

"Okay, I am!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Daughter and father starred at each other breathing heavily from their shouting match. Owsla snapped out of it first, leaning back to smile with a curious look on her face.

"Is this the type of special relationship between fathers and daughters? I've never done this with Mom before."

Natasha looked at Owsla with a grimace at what her twisted sense of daddy daughter bonding was now. This having a child thing would definitely be a slow process for Joel... Emphasis on the slow part by the look on the poor artist's face.

When Joel finally straightened up from leaning across the table, he was blinking rapidly trying to process the words that had come out of his mouth. _"Okay, I am!"_ He let out a groan as he ran his hands down his face frustratedly. His damn mouth and competitive nature had gotten in yet another mau5 hole.

"Alright alright, we all just woke up and its just too early to be shouting." Natasha grabbed some cereal for Owsla and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, escorting her to the table. "Here's some breakfast, though I'd suggest letting it soak in the milk a bit, it's better that way."

"Morning gu- woah... Owsla?"

"Good Morning Phishie!" the newly grown _teenage_ r at her breakfast table smiled at her brightly.

Phishie walked into the kitchen peering at the alien curiously. When her gaze shifted to Natasha, the semi-red head shook her hands.

"I am NOT the alien expert."

"She's a teenager?"

"Yes." Nat nodded in affirmation.

"Okay then." With that, Phish went to grab a poptart from the pantry. Meanwhile, Joel decided to stop banging his head against the table. Languishly, he sunk into s chair across from Owsla, starring suspiciously at the child who had made him- no CONNED him into being a f... fa... faaa... fath... He couldn't say it. This just shouldn't be happening. How the hell was this happening? Tiredly he bit into a poptart as he tried to make sense of it all.

The sound of shuffling socks interrupted his inner monologue. Soon the goblin appeared, rubbing his face tiredly. The tell tale sign of a late night were apparent by the dark circles under his eyes. He yawned loudly as he stretched. Joel instinctively knew he had stayed up all night working on a new single.

"Dude, put some pants on."

Sonny looked down at himself. He had his usual black t-shirt on and a pair of red plaid boxers along with his socks. "I have boxers on..."

"There is nothing but girls in this house man."

"Says the man who refused to wear a towel." Sonny grumbled.

"I'm lesbian, Phish is asexual, and Bucky is his sister. I don't think it matters that much... unless you're getting off on it Joel." Natasha smiled oh-so innocently.

"What! No!"

"Do you have orange juice?" Sonny asked.

"Yeah, in the fridge."

Grabbing the orange juice he unscrewed the cap and began searching for a cup. Then he turned around and immediately dropped the whole thing. "Owsla!"

"Sonny!" Phishie exclaimed, the orange juice spilling everywhere.

But the raven haired man just ignored her as he walked towards Owsla. Bumping into the island, he proceeded to get on it, walk across it, walk onto the table and jump down right next to Owsla's chair. Grabbing her, he hugged his child fiercely, starting to cry.

"Whyyyy! I told you to stay small forever!"

"I'm sorrryyy!"

"One day you wake up and your kid is all grown up and teenagery and soon you'll be older than me!"

"Don't worry Mom, I'll try to be a strong, independent woman like you." Only Natasha caught sight of her rolling her eyes

"Soon you'll be married and leaving me!"

"Moooom! You're embarrassing me!" Owsla looked away blushing.

Joel's eyes widened as he watched the two of them. "Married? No boys till you're legal. We don't want lawsuits."

Sonny looked at his best friend. "Oh Joel, don't be so harsh... just tell any suitors your mama has the resources to dispose of their dead body and get away with it." and the big smile he had when he said it made it all just as creepy as you're thinking.

"She could be into girls, like me, you know." Natasha pointed out.

"Are you hitting on my daughter!"

"What? No I'm just saying she could be-"

"I'll show you!" with that, he got ip to chase Natasha.

Immediately Natasha got up and ran. Now, Sonny was a black belt, but he _usually_ forgot that when he needed the skills (which was how he got that scar across his chest but that's a story for another day). So _usually_ Natasha wouldn't bother with the short man's threats... but Owsla seemed to bring an _unusual_ protective side of him, so she decided not to risk it.

"Sonny! Cut it out! Stop chasing me goblin!" she yelled at him as she was chased around the table.

"Oh my god! Mom, stop!" Owsla, the poor teen, buried her face in her arms, embarrassed beyond belief.

But no one was willing to stop it so Sonny chased her around the table intill they finally came to a stand still. Natasha debated what to do intill she found an escape route through the kitchen. If Sonny followed her between the table and island, it might just buy her enough time to run down the hallway and barricade herself in one of the bedrooms. She was an expert at playing the door-game with her brother and Sonny didn't weigh that much so he had less body weight to throw around to his advantage. Then again, he also had the option of continuing on his side of the island. If he did, he would surely catch her at the refrigerator. But knowing her plan was the only way to end this endless charade, it was just a risk she would have to take.

She took off. And like a final piece of a jigsaw puzzle, she could see her picture of freedom coming together as he followed after her on the preferred route. What she hadn't accounted for in her plan however, was the fact Phish was cleaning up Sonny's orange juice spill from earlier.

Not only was her poor friend in the way, the floor was still covered in slippery liquid. Luckily for Natasha, her assassin reflexes and years of dance came in handy. Without a second thought, she easily lept over the danger zone, avoiding a massive collusion, and landed safety on the other side.

Everything seemed clear for the path of freedom, intill she remembered the 5' 4" man behind her. And this man didn't have assassin reflexes or years of dance experiences. Nope, he was just a fumbley goblin and so the unavoidable collusion commenced.

"Look out!" Phishie cried out in warning.

But it was already too late. With socks on his feet and a slippery, half cleaned, he never stood a chance. So, without much pre-amble, he found himself falling face first into a puddle of orange juice.

The room was oddly silent intill Sonny tried to get up, just to fall again, slipping on the wet floor. The gang burst into laughter as they saw his face, orange juice coming down in rivets. Natasha was laughing particularly hard as she stood above him, admiring her (however accidental) work.

Sonny glared at her from below. "Shut up."

"Hey, you're the one who spilled it in the first place and then didn't clean it up. It's a suitable punishment..." and while Natasha really tried to stop herself, she couldn't help her one liner that came out of her mouth next. "But hey, although you're on your knees, the height difference isn't that noticeable."

Sonny gaped at the tall red head above him. "Why! You! Little!"

"Who you calling little?"

Finally Joel took pity on -his daughter- who was dying of embarrassment due to continued shenanigans of her mother. So, before the hoodlums could go at it again, he called out to his best friend.

"Sonny, come here he commanded."

"B...but!"

Playing the rank card, Joel looked over with a cold stare, repeating himself in an authoritative tone. "Over here, _now._ "

And like a good little goblin, he flopped down in the chair next to Joel, a pouty puppy look on his features.

With all this commotion going on, the racket had finally gotten loud enough to wake Bucky up. She finally decided to get up and come into the kitchen... only to immediately turn back around to go back to bed.

"I don't even want to know." she said, walking back down the hallway.

"Wait, Bucky! Aren't you hungry?" her girlfriend called after her.

"Not hungry enough to deal with whatever that is."

Rolling her eyes, Nat ran after her with a hot pocket, knowing her girlfriend would go hungry if she didn't eat now.

"Here," she held it in front of her. When Bucky hesitated, the semi-red head gave her a stern look. "Eat it."

Deciding she didn't want to get beaten up by her assassin girlfriend so early in the morning, she obediently bit into the other end but making sure to give her a defiant look as she did it. But Nat could care less that her girlfriend was irritated with her. Happy that she was fed, she kissed her on her forehead. Bucky was known for skipping breakfast a lot.

In the kitchen, Phishie had finally finished cleaning up the orange juice spill and Sonny was eating breakfast, trying to ignore the stern looks coming from his best friend beside him.

"Are you going to eat Owsla?" Phishie asked while throwing away the last bit of paper towel she had used to clean up the massive spill.

"Yeah eat up." Sonny agreed, waving his spoon at her. "You know they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"I will, I will... as soon as I find the pod goop." Owsla sighed, head resting on her arm.

"You don't have to eat that slimy stuff! Here, try some of this." Sonny encouraged, pushing a spoon of his own cereal towards her. "Look! Here comes the train! Chugga chugga chugga chugga chu, chu!"  
"No!" Owsla began to duck the insistent food train. "Mom! I'm two days old anymore!"

"Well at least eat something. Being a moody teenager doesn't mean skipping breakfast." Joel reasoned.

"I'm not _that_ moody dad!" Owsla complained.

"What else do you want me to call it when you refuse to eat?"

"I'm not being moody! It's just I don't know if I can digest human food... I'm only supposed to eat the pod goop."

Phishie cleared her throat awkwardly. "Um... well... we don't have any more of that. The rest of the pod goop was lost when the pod crashed... You already ate the last of it."


	15. Incognito in Stagelights

p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c92d61fb19cf7364a474ff3906204f8a"About 2 years ago.../p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="6e7022b6f0bf718ec75275ca28788763""-apparently he wants those stage lights"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="6e803c56297cf2968803dd1ce446d5a6""Mmmmhmmm"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4f9b9e90dc2d03d217784091c4c9aa03""Which is weird when you think about it since, shouldn't he have enough already? Bucky said-"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f32a69bb56e40db70814a1f3f25d2de7"Natasha stopped, turning to face her honey blonde friend. "Can we stop talking about this please?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="55f5d8b453041ddce98aadc4356311f0""But-"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7fea06c62489f65d42ae259d9e87c57c""Phishie, I already told you. I don't care what you tell Bucky. If she asks, tell her the truth, but I don't want to know anything. I'm em style="box-sizing: border-box;"trying /emto forget she ever existed."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="85714e1156ce2f62ab2ee9f57a4bd37c""But this is important."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="50559ca9c762cb6eaaf5e5ade910a248""Is she dying?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="0ab06f2ca6810f8d01083b3d39208ff7""No."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="9630d2dfb722a77f2385f78b0dd2cda9""Is she in danger?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="136fac652f2d45933117b9de3de5005e""Nooo but-"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="cda818caa25926dd89936f927c4a5ae5""Then I don't want to know." with that, Natasha continued down the hallway not bothering to check if Phish was behind her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d7f0369283bff1a300bb925edf47df88"A few weeks ago, the lovers had broken up. Safe to say Natasha was taking it pretty hard. Although she constantly urged Aurelia and Karmina to hang out with Jamie and be friends; personally she couldn't do it. it was painful to even think about her, much less talk or even look at the blonde. So, to keep herself sane she had implemented the rule of 'Don't even talk about her'. The idea was never talking about Bucky would prevent her from thinking about it and help her forget about Jamie completely. But forgetting the best thing that ever happened to her seemed impossible./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="18e7ef7f8f603e29ca2197c0fd375438"It didn't matter anymore, at least that's what she told herself. It was really for the best anyways right? Removing herself from the entire situation was in their best interests. This way, Natasha couldn't hurt her anymore because they wouldn't get into fights anymore. They wouldn't speak at all. Plus Jamie wouldn't have to lie and sneak around just to date her. Yeah, complete avoidance would just be safer for everybody./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="5ebae07f1852dc8d04e9fec97490691c"Aurelia soon caught up with her broken hearted friend, deciding to drop the subject knowing Natbr style="box-sizing: border-box;" /would regret it later./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="962708fc9e44f2b402db6a84a8f413cc"That later came sooner than expected. As usual, Mr. Clarke's classroom was talkative and loud as creative minds clashed to create masterpieces. Being a film class they exercised an organized chaos because every project was basically student run. During project days, Mr. Clarke did little besides supervise and help when asked. He liked letting the kids do their own thing. Today was no different; everyone was in their respective teams working on their horror short films. But today was unusual because they had an unexpected visitor./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a54579333c6da721d3f307fb1abf70bc"All heads turned at the sound of the door opening. He was a bit short in height. A red hoodie dwarfed his small frame, grey cargo pants hanging loosely on his waist. The pants were obviously too big for him because they slouched into his black converse, too tall for his stature. On his face, dark shades covered his eyes and a baseball cap hid the signature hairdo. An average Joe wouldn't look twice at him. In fact, without his signature look, he was a lot less recognizable but this was Natasha. Someone who had been shown countless numbers of online videos and personal photos. To her, that familiar jawline and snakebites gave it away. There was no mistaken that the man who had just walked into the door was.../p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f822cc0079d7100eed27e9fd789f10be"Sonny. John. Moore./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="88c7f8ca2d6b9d0bf4fc7ba6b47318bc"The brother of her girlfrie- no x. Her x-girlfriend. The brother of her x-girlfriend who probably had enough money to kill her and get away with it. The one who had already got onto her before during previous fights with Jamie./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ec7f17937f7993937819e73ae9b55c86"Holy. Fucking... SHIT!/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="5aa624c6f62eb7850641a74dafca7ac1"Quickly Natasha closed her mouth before he caught her starring at him. The two of them had never actually met face to face... So he wouldn't know what she looked like anyways, right? Bucky wouldn't have photos of her either, it was too risky. But you couldn't be too careful Natasha supposed. Acting quickly, she elbowed her pen off the table and facing away from the door bent down to pick it up. But instead of returning to her seat she continued to hide under the table./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="daa958622d25aed237e5f9000004e7aa"Mr. Clarke looked up from his desk. "May I help you?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f63cdf52d72b22a19a1344460a41a9d6""Uuuuh yeah... I'm Tim Smith? We talked over the phone about the stage lights?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1f2ddf699feca38ff180d2828228c498"While Sonny walked over to talk to , underneath the table Natasha covered her mouth before she could make any noise. Tim Smith? Really! Could he get anymore obvious?/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="efd56bdfd573947ccd4155bcaf873899"Phishie, who sat beside her, looked underneath the table at her friend. "Are you Okay?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="8fd630432930f61bf7923095b5928b9c""Am I okay? What do you think?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b137f46dc88f99e2c191f64034c5e8d2""This is why you should listen to me more often."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f6a0dd98772b3dbbd18cf48c59f89589"Natasha frowned. "What'd'ya mean?" and then it dawned in her. The only way Sonny could've possibly known about the stage lights for sale at Ben Barber... "Did you know about this?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="dcc06f43f53bf9278d6eab21407c703c""Yeah, I did."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="cfe61c98a15106cb0901d471c0d1a6b2""Why didn't you tell me?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="062d06cda52bf093da03f7f7caadf9f3""I tried to," Phish defended herself. "But nooo you don't want to hear about Bucky!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="49cfb6cba679727ba501c0b2bd327b4f"Natasha shushed her immediately. "Don't say her name, he'll notice us!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7b67f1f673989b33370f3b741676ef9e"Phish felt like rolling her eyes but didn't. "I'm pretty sure he's already noticed us Natasha. This isn't a bomb shelter, you cant just duck and hide."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="abf66d045d1fcbb0440fc3f1a71a974d""Yes I can!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2709a9676bb749bcc669152f1379d28c""No you can't!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="78582aa1d2770a605f705134ec15adb4""Yes!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="73e2ac35b9d7d411f3823b7c5aed23a1""No!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f402975a15b850dab5ad018826e2cab2""Yes!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2782b7e639259b96104982059b8a8ff3""Hey!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="25165bb03f131ae3b132a1552499a242""Aah!" Natasha screamed like a little girl as she jumped. The sudden voice making her hit her head on the tabletop above her. She whirled around to come face to face with her worst nightmare. Right in front of her face was a koala with long black hair and nerd shades./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2f21960ee241c3b55871c4b60ab6fcda""H... Hiii... d-uh... Mr. Smith, right?" Natasha fumbled over her words, completely unprepared for whatever was coming next./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="561ca6049d7dfc4ef0641a0ecc0b0039""Yeah... sooo whatcha doin' down there"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3895b33458dc3c0c465ebe0503449e95"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Hiding from you./em "Looking for my pencil."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f3ce35086db4dfb088e7ca1bcb226db8""It's in your hand."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bac45a8893eb15d694dff7a9565a9391"Natasha looked at her hand like she didn't even know it existed, which at this point was pretty accurate. Her brain was completely fried due to the sudden verbal attack on it. "Oh... so it is... huh" looking at this 'foreign' object in her hand, she laughed nervously./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="10294289c80b4fb981612c4e0a3be940""Natasha!" Mr. Clarke called from across the room./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="52f19a78e8d7b3215cdcead513407734""Yes Mr. Clarke!" as if she had rebooted, her brain started to work again, thanks to her teacher. Blessing his beautiful soul, she peered around the goblin's slim frame to look at said beautiful soul./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="6a4bfdaf234e21bc695ffb8769951931""You aren't doing anything right now are you?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1b5a7db9b86c8a6f31f0f6254fea5fe3""Your name's Natasha?" Sonny peered at the semi-red head curiously. em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. /emShe was skating on thin ice. If not doing anything got her a job out of this classroom then em style="box-sizing: border-box;"HELL/em "No." she crawled out from under the table to walk over to Mr. Clarke's desk./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="345ee9e2d70c3b5a1c98a34fc0e8d487"Handing her his keys, Mr. Clarke gave her instructions. "Could you go open the closet for Mr. Smith? He's buying the old stage lights."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2f4f6a9a69b1f5ba40f39845d2069181"Regrettably, Natasha took the keys from her teacher. 'Mr. Smith'. Geez. "Sure," rolling her eyes as she left, Natasha sighed. Well, at least she wasn't stuck with- "Why are you following me?" She asked a certain em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Mr. Smith /emwho was tailing her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bf3dfb22f70497b8307698b9cf0c3940""Well I doubted you could carry those stage lights by yourself."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="9ddcdd77ad8d176e5ce397dd404e52d0""I can manage, thanks" Natasha replied, hastening her pace to get rid of him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="00c32ce9e4892e31564f9cb9e42c78e7""You know, my sister has a friend named Natasha."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="89fd9e34462bf19075a0d7a66517f8d2"Natasha forced herself to stay relaxed. em style="box-sizing: border-box;"'He doesn't know what you look like' /emshe reminded herself. "Oh really? What a coincidence."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4031943fc66644f6e117bd0e3a47962e""Coincidence?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a1c57857a682abbeaf31cdfab99fd4ca""I don't have any friends with the last name Smith." she smoothly explained./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7b59a154989b8c3be89d106c7252b3b4""Oh." Sonny chuckled. "No, her last name is actually Barnes."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="607a046c39431f0693b3fe7d75caa643""Well that's nice,"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2b8082621ff015288e65e7c2537130d1"It took Natasha a moment to realize he had stopped following her. Instead he was standing in the hallway, motionless "What? Is something wrong?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b196742d98bacf9a32b7d610fc0c9361""You don't know her?" Sonny starred at her curiously./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2bc096790ca82db17c66845aeb816ab0"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Shit./em He was suspicious. She would have to be pretty convincing. "No. I don't," she said firmly. "There's a lot of girls named Natasha, Mr. Smith. My name isn't exactly unique."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a577f498bfa65f3adf427fc64389edc9"There was a short pause as Sonny stood there but he eventually resumed walking by her side. "I guess you're right. She's a lot meaner than you are."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="22df7301f74888668720e558f43fb2b3""I am-!" Natasha had to quickly prevent herself from defending herself. She was supposed to be a different Natasha! "Glad to hear it!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="36ecc70939c8a98182a82864a0bd96d2""She likes to make fun of my height a lot."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3d180b23a7323fe281eb195869f46349"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"That wasn't even me! That was Phishie! /emBut again, she couldn't defend herself. "Well that sucks Mr. Smith." Natasha decided to distract herself by opening the door./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7b9307c140dd3240d4a4bbac97c14923""She's also a huge fan of Skrillex... just like my sister."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d6464175f59f758c46051b4e259b1247"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"'Deep breaths. Deep breaths.' /emNatasha desperately tried to keep herself calm. For Sonny to compare Jamie's obsession with her own brother to anything Natasha may or may not feel towards him made her skin crawl. To think he could think that! To Jamie, Sonny was her hero, but to Nat, it was embarrassing enough to even admit she loved his music. To Natasha, he could never be 'Skrillex' he would always be Sonny. Jamie's brother. And to be obsessed with your girlfrie- i mean, X-girlfriend's brother's music... was so awkward she wanted to die./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="aff981bf2d39d624dc3b068da331bf0c""I like Deadmau5 more myself." she fired back. "Skrillex and him may be good friends but I think it's pretty obvious who the better artist is." Natasha immediately felt horrible for saying it because she could never actually mean it. She loved both artists' music equally, she couldn't even begin to compare he two; their musical signatures were too different. But, he was really pissing her off and she had to whatever it took to keep him from finding out who she was. Entering the closet she yanked the door open in his face, not bothering to hold it open for him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1b70b710ee0070d80f21783924aed281""Hmm," Sonny pouted for a quick second at the mention of his best friend yet arch nemesis. They had a complicated relationship. "You know, Jamie calls her best friend Deadmau5 sometimes. I think it's pretty cool since the artists themselves are pretty close."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c7ee3021348e5eef258afac84ae146a7"Natasha's grip on the state lights became vibranium as she grabbed them. She didn't want to hear this anymore! She didn't want to hear Sonny say these things 'behind her back'! She didn't want to remember Jamie and what they used to be./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="e503697c55d0688c5ebe0d21dcf984a2"Gritting her teeth Natasha replied. "You must really admire this person to keep talking about her all the time." Natasha said, trying to get the message across that she didn't want to hear about this person anymore./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="5b323f99df2ae8019692583f5a1aa060""Yeah," Sonny admitted. "But not right now..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d34ac7c7bb86dc703bed6ff66352e2b6""And why not?" Natasha asked, sarcastically cheerful./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b6892ca6e8c47f1ba6f2b7917b284cf2""Because right now she's lying to me."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2eb295a90a3632633ccd7de0e9e164e5"Natasha's head snapped up to look at him, shocked. She starred at him open mouthed for a long second before promptly shutting it. Looking at the floor guilty, she tried to leave but Sonny easily blocked her path./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="24b8727941de5f8414df4a0d4561fd59"Natasha sighed. "How'd you know?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="e397fc9ab5d8f79064373338996efe60""I already knew you were in this class. I've known the entire time."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="70c8a7000d99e21d1374de85d3bbff32"Swallowing nervously, something clicked in her head. "You said all those things to piss me off, didn't you?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f942f573007e85a87ec9603c4bb4fa6b""Well," Sonny was reluctant to admit her had purposely riled her up but it was true. "I didn't want to piss you off per say... but yes I was trying to irritate you." he admitted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="423a2b1b1261b43644f845ff6cbe2b7d""That's a jerk move."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="09d5b4b8600849e97c52872390035a25""So is lying."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d85de2e89587f1c289d8fb3433ec2be6"Natasha's only answer to his statement was a glance to the floor./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1cae9aeb1de49b9c68222623305d7694""Why?" Sonny demanded. "Why did you like to me?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b649e68a5ac3790239ffc505f11b2eef"Finally, she snapped. "Because what was I supposed to say? Hi! I'm the girl who broke your sister's heart! Wanna hang out some time?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b8a4377d24a691fa9fe2a0750a9da8b0""Yes!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4a5fe787b18a66eed21503fed3ae2ac0""What?" Natasha blinked at him, bewildered./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="923c3a41a68583b6e2aef0d768fd7921""I'd love to hang out sometime!" Grabbing the stage lights from her, the raven-haired man walked off grinning. "See ya later!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1a048fc2fdc980cd0dd705d8cf4ce907""What? Wait! I didn't-! That didn't mean... but-!" Natasha babbled her protest but his back was already turned, mind made up, walking towards the 'sunset' in a halo of LED lighting./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1ba7857136a8649270896c71ee56dbfd"That evening.../p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4aad7b90acb1b7c994b55a22642338bc"Natasha sat in the living room watching TV. Tonight, she was home alone... well basically. Her parents were out at a friend's and her brother was playing video games in the media room as he always did when the parental units were out. The result was Natasha downstairs left alone with her Netflix. Well the dogs were there but they were both asleep on the couch currently. It was just another typical Friday night./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c423a79237032227c4f2e706f02eb0c7"It was about 6:15 that evening when the doorbell rang. Natasha was quick to the door as the dogs barked around her, their little brains convinced an intruder was near. This time, they weren't exactly wrong./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="04f2d3da8cd12de0f2d63eadbe7ba237""What's up, Nat?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ae8b61558c4d5cf1a4b880789d1fb70c"Natasha blinked a few times, trying to get her brain to fully process and react to the image she was currently observing./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="17bfea851df4d0281afb9cefb9d579da""Sonny... what the hell are you doing here?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="e66ec8cb271904a1c741f7a49acdfd79"And so, there he was. All 5 feet 5 inches of him. Standing on her porch. Ringing her doorbell. Smiling like an idiot./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="32f615b90dd40611deb29d34d86f96fa""You asked to hang out sometime so I'm taking you up on the offer." he explained./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="619496826ca6c46f669bfed3ca1af556"And that's when she slammed the door in his face. Poor sonny, he was only trying to be nice. Meanwhile, Natasha was flipping the fuck out. How the em style="box-sizing: border-box;"hell /emdid he find her address? It wasn't in the phone book, right? Phone books... were those even a think anymore? Never mind. There was no way in hell she was gonna... 'hang out' with him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c509e31eae3f6c285fd02a955744b7be"But, our short and talented hero didn't come all this way for nothing. "Natasha!" he yelled at the heavy oak door in front of him. "Open up, I'm serious! We need to talk about this!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="fbfa206897b8e5e80d3218eebe3a3468""There's nothing to talk about!" Natasha shouted back. "Bucky is safer and happier without me and it would just be better if we both moved on."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="869ce8ee5658a95e6d0b1bb9c30393de""BULLSHIT!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="80ee72b9fcd0f500f2b60ad2cec25f6b"Natasha was shocked at the level at which he was screaming back at./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a913a7049e8571d3d63a8af4f91e5217""That's full of so much shit I can smell it through the door and you know it!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a79e8d03e6769307c3c0ae06f6794acb""Wrong! I'm not a doctor, go get your nose checked somewhere else!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="8cf696c00423040f3b229c9379fde87e""Natasha!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="07def7bd41607b92f6c760c0d36c1ad8"Natasha walked away from the door and sitting on the couch resumed her Netflix. NCIS, hmmmm. Maybe if she just ignored him he would go away. It could have worked except for the fact that he wouldn't stop knocking on the door. And all that knocking kept the dogs barking, constantly. BARK BARK BARK. She hated that noise. Natasha considered calling the cops but she couldn't BARK BARK BARK call the cops on her girlfrie- BARK BARK BARK x-girlfriend's brother. BARK BARK BARK not to mention he was BARK BARK BARK one of her favorite BARK BARK BARK artists, even if it BARK BARK BARK killed her to BARK BARK BARK admit-/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f5574bb3868050fbf7c503189623637a""AH!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="eb47e17498ff8943fb0105af6be3225d"Finally, Natasha broke. At this point, she'd talk to Satan if the dogs would stop barking. "Alright!" She surrendered, flinging open the door. "I'll talk if you'll stop knocking on the damn door!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="8cd5ffb9be37251a263c074b59fda4e8"Sonny smiled triumphantly. "Alright, let's talk." he moved to come in the door but Natasha stopped him./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d87bf860368b514ec9cf20d37132cb24""Not here, the dogs wont shut up anytime soon if you do."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b9231cf5ac00a356663490e6ea9972fc""Mmm okay. Hungry?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="184826be0ea6837abb5851807f7a9e2b""What?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4cb5fe30bdcfb955cb0f9fbf3d85b139""If we can't talk here we could go to Taco Bell. I'm starving." /p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="6cd74257a5642515b92a553037e93974"Natasha sighed. Going somewhere this evening had not been a part of her plans, especially not with em style="box-sizing: border-box;"this/em guy. However, she knew talking here was impossible now. The dogs had been wound up and their barking wouldn't cease; they would have to yell over them if they stayed here. "I guess I could go for a taco," she admitted. "Let me go grab my things..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="8b6e76995b70cd328729b2394f896167"Sonny watched the semi-red head take off, charging upstairs. "What things?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7d248c0c211d11e33f8c892a3b04bfe8"Natasha didn't answer him un till she was pounding down the steps again. "Um, my phone? Wallet?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3cc382a0194d2ccc5f8acd4f66dee1be""Wallet?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="78dfbfff893ed7f6574189916b02bf70""Food doesn't come for free, genius." /p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3276a3b6aff88e74bedc8174ecf50f8e"Sonny snorted. "Thanks but I invited you so I'll pay. I mean, I did show up uninvited, least I could do."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d300362e7ff70e27bd0a6dc82a97c9d9"Natasha just glared at him as she walked past. "Thanks for realizing but I don't feel like owing you a favor."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="febb2b59e33ec6f3e85da5c9441400ec""What's so bad about owing me a favor?" Sonny asked curiously as they got into the car. Instead of answering him Natasha just gave him a 'really?' look but when he didn't get it, she rolled her eyes to stare out the window. He was still curious but decided not to ask; he was hungry./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1e75e2e9b760cd38b9e6bc4ba0c96029"The car ride was silent as both parties questioned just what the hell they were doing. Natasha was sure he would have yelled at her by now. He was Jamie's big brother, wasn't he supposed to go after the jerk faces who broke her heart and knock them around? Instead he was being em style="box-sizing: border-box;"nice/em and somehow that was even worse. Besides, he had never sought her out in person before; usually he would steal Jamie's phone and text her, telling her how stupid both of them were being and they should just make up and be friends again. Oh shit. Had Bucky ever told him that they had started dating? Did he know this was a 'lover's quarrel' or did he still think they were just friends?/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4c48068a8eed656f181c8f95d4780f52"Meanwhile, Sonny was wondering just what the hell he was doing too. Usually he stayed out of their fights- he was a busy man and didn't have the time anyways. Yet, this time around he had felt the need to get involved. This time it was different. The constant bad mood Jamie had been trying to hide had finally made sense when he started asking about the stage lights. Phishie had told Bucky who had told him, but when he asked Bucky if he could say 'hi' to her friends when he went to pick them up, the mystery began to unfold. Sonny hadn't thought it would be a big deal, he just wanted to know who these people were in person; he had texted them through Bucky's phone before but thanks to Annie, he was never allowed to be home if Jamie's friends were over. But, the look on Jamie's face when he had mentioned Natasha... it hadn't stopped bothering him all week. He had kept waiting for the fight to be over but as the days went on, it still seemed to have no sign of letting up. Giving up on letting the two work it out by themselves, he called Mr. Clarke to pick up the stage lights. But now that he was here, he wasn't sure how he was going to fix this./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b91332598a9d0806e41e13f0140d0b40"The car ride was awkward to say the least./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d49425e3cba5b53f202c78437e67973f" . . . . . . . . . . . ./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="703aca6365cc461e141a4d2ba85c1f24""Why do I get the feeling you don't like me very much?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="563814839c19c8e926a16d3c8bafbfad"After arriving at Taco Bell and ordering, they had fought over who was going to pay. Natasha had faster reflexes though so the cashier had taken her debit card instead of his, at which she smiled triumphantly at him. Now that they were both eating though, they were quiet. Sonny's sudden question surprised her a bit by the nature of it but honestly she couldn't blame him for thinking that way and she felt a pang of guilt for causing it./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="dd854da5a3e1b61507480baac7d02b00" In the middle of taking a bite of her taco, she looked up at him but couldn't respond. She tried to say something but she had taken too big of a bite to reply quickly. Finally, she swallowed her taco bite and replied. "It's not that I don't like you, it's just... I don't know how to say it."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="68c4f9d6fc0b52415556274d5b109302""Say it anyways." he prompted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="321bc99209fa2f0544424dbe28547d67""...I don't know, actually interacting with you face to face humanizes you."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3707f25ad512979c3f4d4e95a3644370""I'm not human?" Sonny looked at her confused. He had already been through the whole 'you're adopted' thing he wasn't sure how he would deal with not being human./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d81a221ff7ed7d753bc4b98a2cf90b75""No, you aren't, but that's not the point."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="147dbe70bdf2c1134ee6533d4e7a4af5""What!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ab1d3b53bff35f840ec2a8a2a0679ae6""When Bucky talks about you all the time... I don't know it makes you feel like you're an ominous black cloud"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ddb7f6a480ed752f4b539ae78b6af88b""I'm an ominous black cloud?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="0705f1b90775076b9671bd92b217215a""And if I screw up, you'll strike me down with lightning or drop some dead animals on me like the glow cloud from Nightvale."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="9abbc34ed670e97dab776a8848f35782"Sonny looked horrified. "I kill animals?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2699f14686a988ab1ddc1180a985e2d4""No! It's an analogy."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d394ac9f310716a7ac37d6a00c76cdae""I don't get it. Spell it out for me?" Sonny smiled sheepishly. Seriously he would never get it if she kept speaking in riddles./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="dceeefa1a308eb5f016b941202af84c0""Please don't make me, I can't spell."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="5aba0dc0e447139a402bc29630152d7b""Then just spit it out."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ef44fd1e657bee6d026e15b3c93c7dbc"Natasha sighed. Quietly, she murmured. "Y.. ..tim.d... m..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="6618f9cc9c9683db9e1072cdaa8f08d0"What?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="303c77644421c5a5bca72da2d89e6e83""...ou in...d... m..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7be25ae24dbef75b9602bd5233e8eb47""I can't hear you."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="d965daf5956231d91e70d16590e3e8dd""You intimidate me!" Natasha shouted it loud and clear./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="8b71bade9685d3388452bc4755b06a0d""What?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7f810b0ff85c08e78cb1f01444d5fa32""Don't make me repeat it again!" Natasha said, her plastic knife a little too obvious in her hand./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c8fc13e01de583f50590e702e1e7f7f8"And then, Sonny laughed. He tried to contain his laughter but he couldn't. He leaned back and laughed, he doubled over and laughed, he was pounding on the table and crying he was laughing so hard./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bcfc926b2c6d6c9dabc971b3c52c0e40""What!" Natasha yelled on embarrassed, her cheeks a pink hue./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c94ef401f081b89c2c40a1b80291f051"Sonny wiped at his eyes as he tried to calm down "But why? I-" he giggled. "I've been called a lot of things but intimidating-" he snorted. "-has never been one of them."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="14000d4d84b43372416d4dca1b30939c""Thanks a lot!" Natasha got up to leave but Sonny stopped her./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="a11be9d9e0cbd05faa368380dceb43bf""Okay, okay! I'm sorry for laughing it's just 'intimidating' is not a word people use to describe me... 'cuz you know... I'm kinda..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="90b447ead85ef03ab776f85fe8acc3f8""Short?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="eb2d90f472b46afa4cc49549d84df7c7"Sonny gave an annoyed sigh, looking at her with a deadpan expression, refusing to yes./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="cb098d405907d2113506f4a476ee8e15"Sitting back down at the table, Natasha continued, explaining herself. "It's just, she obviously cares a lot about you. I mean, honestly she can never shut up about you. You're like... her real life hero... I mean, if you had decided you didn't like me while you were still dating, I'd be dead and I'd never get to see her again. It makes me nervous because it makes me feel like I need your approval to be friends with her. And... for some reason that means I lash out at you instead of being nice which I know is completely backwards but-"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="64a278c25260bb36ee8148cd79be613a""Wait... I'm sorry, but back up for a second... what do you mean, em style="box-sizing: border-box;"dating?/em"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f5d4a9c82eec10b9f115ff86a2e423bd"Natasha froze. She had completely forgotten Jamie had never updated him about their relationship status. Usually she was so careful not to mention it but he had made her forget about it completely. She starred at him open mouthed while the panic alarms blared in her head. "Oh shit."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="20a49c70181a874a33b49f8bfb718b95""You're em style="box-sizing: border-box;"dating/em my sister?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ed6496ae4eba39043d286e738d8c3d57""I wasn't supposed to tell you that..." If she hadn't been screwed before, she was pretty sure she was screwed now. /p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="8294673946cb2c413c87f1b46c3a4c65""How long has this been going on?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="10c756b777b154447dd7bf63f46552c2"Well, she was in too deep to lie now, technically lying was what had gotten her here in the first place. "Uuuuh... all summer?" Oh god she was so dead./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="73b49b3a2f01edf7d265fad3d2f55ab2"Sonny looked at her surprised. "Only that long?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="1943b9837d25c20cb3d31e18a1bf75f5""What?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="5f9ad9cc9efb125a647f572e902a1834""I thought you guys were secretly dating for like... months before that." Sonny admitted./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="66fac330d417353d88ce2b77870169b1""WHAT!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="e991f0970e7505b728c6b4ef9fe8b2c9""Well this is awkward..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="4d88ec9ebfdeb9ef1209e74527763537""You don't say!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="6e1047b4837e41c17dae616fcea70da9""Well look on the bright side. You're not a guy so I don't have to give you the whole 'you better use fucking protection' talk."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2d451e4bde84dd669fc919be4ab50f2d""OH MY GOD!" Natasha put her head in her hands. How was this happening? She thought she would be yelled at this evening, instead she was so embarrassed she wanted to melt into the floor./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="f6527dbcb36566a1f9a7ec24bee04d33"Deciding it was high time they got back on track, Sonny broke her train of thought. "Okay, okay, for real though, what happened?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="6ed4897f2aaae3e35feede542ee9ffaf""She got mad at me, I was in a bad mood, and when talking it out didn't work we ignored each other and it festered and next thing I knew we just weren't friends anymore."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="c6d733e3a006cfa499839b45c86105c3""So basically you both are being fucking idiots?" he concluded./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="43fa360e4521338ccb994e6b942f5bf1"Natasha inwardly cringed, but the truth hurts sometimes./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bb9fd55a495842316a2398e28bd876fa""Yeah basically... it's just... sometimes I doubt our friendship because I feel like if we were really best friends we wouldn't have these problems. I bet you and Joel never have these sorts of problems."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="72c0cc4e417997534d19ab33ee094b8a""Well... actually..." Sonny's depressed look shocked Natasha as she watched him glance away./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="960fa0f82ecd836f571ddbda2938974e""What happened?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="feaf618505c6534bf8c06b885500cfb7""He's just been a real jerk ever since my Jack U album came out... he's been making fun of it a lot."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="fc517ef99d66d9507b41c14876541ab2""Why? I love that album!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="82c6592ed8af1f4341e0ebad99443cc1""Really?" Sonny grinned./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7ca887c0c2682d76a8baf22ffd590f20""Don't." Natasha held up a hand before he could start./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2a20312c8f907ea9b1b18e82137112da"Sonny sighed. "Yeah, he's been insulting 'Where Are You Now' a lot."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="03e64f4cdb0232e47ae4b5ef1550c7f2""Oh, well of course. I hate that song."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="013c2b38846732bbb4de65858d49539d""Hey!"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="8360ea4ab73270c9ebf8370727b59473""Okay, I don't hate it... I just hate Justin Bieber. His voice... bleck." Natasha shook like her spine was crawling./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bdf4f48d2f8ab92874a7539c966086ef""Well, it's my work and I really worked hard on it. As an artist himself, he should understand that. He thinks he's just joking around but it really hurts coming from not only my best friend but as someone I respect as a fellow musician as well. Instead of insulting me for working with em style="box-sizing: border-box;"one/em asshole, he should be congratulating me on my success."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="fd2ffd382bd5a7b8316f4874e10bb2ee""Did you tell him that?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="0c6a1cd2a9463d46661075cd324b0595"Sonny starred at him blankly for a moment. "What?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="5408032b2ce22e5e4c2c713190a433e3""Did you tell him that? Did you tell him how you feel about him insulting your work?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="fae856daf3815b64a6ebcced24328893""No, but this is fucking Joel we're talking about, he doesn't care."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="15360b4211d26f676fd3ddebb16c25f3""He's your best friend, of course he cares."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="78cc59467240c8927fda0ddedc711231"A long moment passed as Sonny thought about her words. When he opened his mouth again, he had to hide a smile from his lips. "Did you tell Jamie about how you felt?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="bcc7099e8cda3ff5b612c41464cbe792""No, of course not! We broke up!" Natasha exclaimed, exasperated with his stupid question. What was he thinking? "Are you serious? She hates me! She wouldn't ca-" Natasha stopped before she said anything more, realizing the words she had just spoken./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="e6d0e576d0686ddc93adb25e29640c49""She's your best friend, of course she cares." Sonny smiled smugly./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="ac5413b78bc22da039d9e87f263710fb""Oh god." Natasha covered her eyes with her hand so he couldn't see the slight moisture in her eyes. She had really screwed up with time. "I'm such an idiot."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="31104cd7866e9084c9f918e3fb555358""Oh you're not the only one." Sonny assured. "I can garentee Jamie will be getting the same lecture tonight."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="af3adc59fe925ce22fcf782e5ccbc550""I just want her to be happy- with or without me, but..."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="975451c0c02c2f836dca23183564d072"Sonny thought for a while before leaning over the table. "Wanna know a secret?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2d1b2a412099dbe5e576c336449f71e1""I don't know, do I?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="3d6e4a14c7c3db038238d6ebcf7d5588"Sonny gave her a non-amused expression. "Yes," he deadpanned before continuing seriously. "She's a lot happier span style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: underline;"with/span you than without."/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="7a32e81a4d819cd564613d20015e2d76"Natasha looked up from hanging her head. "And why should I believe you?"/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="e42288ac17829b48e056526a40fe544c"Sonny leaned back in his seat with a smug smile. "Isn't it obvious? Because I'm her real-life hero coming to save the day." he proclaimed proudly, popping his shirt in a bad attempt at being suave./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="b5d6c9bdd570b99610a09f1e219381e8"And just like that, he had ruined the moment./p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="559df491dfd9c1d96707aeb3b5119ae7"The next week, Natasha was able to confront Jamie. It wasn't easy, but being honest and taking Sonny's advice (no matter how much she hated it) got them back together. Likewise, Sonny called Joel a few days later. How did it turn out? Well that was two years ago and now they're taking care of a blue alien together. That answer your question?/p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="2f43b42fd833d1e77420a8dae7419000".../p  
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px; color: #555555;" data-p-id="0643ad01778750f49f8fc7d4ce2aed30"Hey guys! Thanks for reading this chapter, I know it was different. In case you didn't get it, this is a flash back to the day Natasha and Sonny met face to face for the first time. I did mention the Jack U album so in this AU, the recent album was released two years ago. I wrote a flashback because I'm having difficulties writing the next chapter but I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while so I decided to write it instead. Next chapter will continue the plot line so see you guys soon!br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /p 


	16. The Plan

At first no one could move or speak. The daunting realization of just what Owsla's words meant slowly seeped in, weighing on them all. Joel spoke first.

"So... what you're saying is... you can't eat?" Joel demanded rather than asked.

Owsla nodded meekly at her father.

"Does that mean you don't need to eat?"

Owsla only shrugged but even as she did, her stomach growled loud and clear. The sound brought everyone around the table back to life.

"So, what does that mean?" Phishie blinked.

But really, no one had any illusions to what it meant. If she couldn't eat, she'd starve to death.

Owsla was going to die.

"Owsla, no!" Running over to her, Sonny held her against him in a soothing yet tight grip.

"Mom, calm down-"

"No! I'm not going to calm down!" Sonny refused. "You're my kid and I am allowed the right to be concerned about you're well being!" He didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't stop his mind from racing with all the horrible possibilities. How could this new life he had just been blessed with be ripped from his hands?

Owsla blushed, embarrassed by all the attention her mom was giving her. "M-mom!"

There was a loud screech as a a chair moved across the hardwood floor, Joel standing up roughly. "There has to be more of it!" he declared. "Owsla! Who was the last person in charge of the goop?"

Owsla starred at her father, shocked by his apparent urgency. "Well... Nattie was, but-"

"NATASHA!" The house was silenced as he bellowed the words, echoing from every corner.

The girl in question was still in the hallway after forcing her girlfriend to eat something. Natasha looked at Jamie who was shocked just as much as she was. Quickly, Natasha ran to the breakfast table, Jamie right on her heels.

"Joel, what the hell is-" Natasha had barely gotten the words out when Joel began his verbal assault.

"Where the fuck is it?"

"Where's what?" Natasha looked at the obviously irritated man in front of her, puzzled by his erratic behavior.

"Don't play dumb, I know you had it!" he hollered back

"What are you talking about?" she inquired, a bit overwhelmed by the fierce look in the Mau5's eyes and his tense, taught form.

"You're in charge of the pod good, where the fuck did it go?"

"It's gone! We gave her the rest of it last night!"

"No." Joel shook his head.

"What?" Natasha looked at him stupefied.

"That's can't be right." he denied.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Natasha asked hostility. He was laying into her for no reason and now he's calling her a liar? Why would she lie about something like that?

Joel replied just as hostility, voice surprisingly loud, ready to go. "What I'm SAYING is-"

"Joel!" Sonny scolded. He had let go of Owsla to walk over to Joel's side, trying to calm down the Mau5's strangely perturbed state of mind. "Breathe. I get you're worried, but yelling at Nat won't help."

"I'm not worried! I just refuse to stand by and watch someone die!"

"Die? Who's dying?" Owsla looked at her parents curiously.

Everyone turned to Owsla at her words. Did... did she not realize that not eating meant-?

Sonny was quick to explain. "No one sweetheart, your Dad is just susceptible to random bouts of delusions."

"What?" Joel turned to stare at his friend, stunned. "I'm not delusional."

"Yes you are. You're being delusional right now. Let's go take your meds honey..." With a fake smile, Sonny determinedly shoved the Mau5 away into the game room. Confused and wondering what the hell was going on, Jamie and Natasha followed suite.

Immediately after shutting the game room door, Joel shoved Sonny off of him. "What the hell?"

"You are NOT about to tell our child she is going to die!"

"Oh no no no, she's your child, not mine!"

"Take responsibility for what you did Joel!"

"What I did? What did I do? I didn't do anything!"

"Oookay, both of you cut it out!" Natasha waved her arms to get their attention. "Would either of you like to explain what the hell is going on?"

"Owsla is going to die."

"Joel!" Sonny protested. "Don't say that!"

"Well she will, won't she? If we don't do anything."

Jamie, who had been silent up until now, spoke up. "How the crap did that happen? Did you poison her or something?"

"NO!"

"She has nothing to eat," Joel explained. "She said she doesn't know if she can eat human food because all she's supposed to eat is the pod goop."

"Well that's gone so just give her some human food anyway." Jamie suggested.

"No." Natasha shook her head. "If she's not meant to digest human food, she could get sick and die. It's just like dogs and chocolate. We can digest it easily but dogs can't. They eat too much and they die. Owsla is a different species, we can't just assume she can digest everything we can."

At that, Sonny started to cry. "No! We can't just give up!"

"I didn't say give up!"

"I hate this!" Joel slammed his hands angrily on the coffee table. "We're fumbling blindly in the dark with no idea of what we're doing!" Although Joel would likely never admit it, he hated seeing his best friend cry: it really ticked him off.

Natasha was reluctant to admit he was right. They had easily accepted the responsibility for the little alien, but none of them knew how to care for it. They really didn't have a clue; it was frustrating.

"Natasha," Jamie said, a contemplative look on her face. "You said they probably sent her here for a reason, didn't you?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well if that's so, wouldn't they have left her instructions or something?" Bucky reasoned. "You don't waste all those resources on a mission without making sure you have the greatest chance for success."

"Well... yeah it would only make sense to give her instructions... or at least to Sonny, sine we're still going under the assumption there's a reason she calls him mommy." Natasha agreed, sending a glance in the goblin's direction.

"And the only thing that came with her is the pod..."

Natasha gaped a bit as she realized what her girlfriend was getting at. "That's still in your backyard isn't it?"

Sonny's eyes widened. "Oh shit! We've got to get it before Annie or Dad gets rid of it!"

Natasha gasped at a sudden realization. "And I think I know someone who can help us. My brother at UTA. They have the equipment there to analyze Owsla's biochemistry and find out if she can digest human food."

Jamie glanced at her girlfriend skeptically. "Are you sure? Your brother is going into aerospace engineering, he's not exactly a biochemist."

"Theodore's best friend is in the medical field, he knows more than you think. I'm sure he can help us." Theodore, Natasha's brother, was a freshman at UTA. Although only a freshman, he was brilliant. A sort of mad scientist if you will. If he couldn't help them in this situation, who could?

"I'll take Owsla to go see my brother. The rest of you can go see about getting that pod to a secure location." Natasha turned to leave, time was of the essence after all, but Bucky stopped her.

"Rose, I'm going with you." Jamie said firmly.

"But-" Natasha was about to protest but her girlfriend's look shut her up. She had the 'don't you DARE fucking protest' kind of look.

"So am I!" Sonny declared. "Owsla's my daughter, I'm going with you!"

Natasha turned to speak but Jamie beat her to it. "No, Natasha's right, you need to go get the pod before Annie or Dad gets rid of it."

The red-head beside her nodded. "Sonny, you're the only one with the resources to get it moved. We're not adults and we don't have the money either. You on the other hand could easily rent a storage space and a moving truck no problem."

"Joel is an adult with money too! Joel can do it and I can go with you guys!"

"Yeah but Joel doesn't have a whole team of trust worthy people to help him move it. We have to keep Owsla as secret as possible for her own safety."

Sonny starred between the two girls for a long moment but eventually sighed, knowing they were right. "Ok." he nodded regrettably.

Joel looked at his best friend, a flash of sympathy in his eyes that he refused to show. "I'll come with you to move the pod," he said, clapping his best friend on the back. "We'll move it and then meet up with you two at the college."

The girls nodded at them before turning to leave. Rose had almost gotten out the door when a voice stopped her.

"Natasha?"

The semi-red head turned to look at the voice. She watched the raven-haired man's throat swallow nervously. The words he wanted to speak were stuck there but his eyes gave it away. Natasha and Sonny had an odd relationship/friendship thing to say the least. But, what ever connection they did have was built on a shared understanding of one thing: passion. Passion was the one thing they both shared in the basics of who they were. In their own respects, the both of them were artists. Sonny had his music of course and Natasha, although no experience in the real world making a living off of it, had her own artistic endeavors in art and writing. To the both of them, their art was their life, what drove their every step. They had an unlimited sense of commitment and dedication to those overwhelming feelings. They were both passionate people that would go any length for what they loved, whether it was a thing, an idea, ... or a person.

Owsla had become one of those 'passions'. His family. One of the few people that he would go any length for. The fierce look she saw in his eyes left no doubt in her mind. Reflexively, her eyes wondered after a certain blonde packing up her stuff before refocusing back on Sonny.

 _'Will you protect her like one of your own?'_

Natasha only gave him a nod. "You got it."


	17. It's Standard Emergency Medical Procedur

The drive to UTA had been shorter than usual, purely due to Natasha's maniac driving. The situation was an emergency so Bucky had resisted complaint but the entire time they were zipping down the highway; she had been clinging on for dear life. Owsla had seemed to enjoy it however. She had been laughing in the backseat, giggling in joy every time they bumped into something and went flying. Jamie wasn't sure how they had made it to the college without being arrested or even alive for that matter. The important thing though was that they had and were currently at UTA's science labs.

"Theodore!" Natasha pounded at the lab door. Through it's window, they could see him standing over an array of test tubes and chemicals. "Theodore, open up!"

Finally he turned around. The sight if him was a relief for their cause... and a cause of worry all of it's own. His lab coat was wrinkled, his was face smudged in... smoke(?); hair singed, eyes wild and tired, with various papers and notebooks everywhere. You didn't need the classification system to identify him as a hot did open the door though.

""Nat!" he exclaimed in a baby voice. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming to visit?"

Natasha was too focused on trying to breathe to reply. Her brother was squeezing her insides out, locked in one of his infamous hugs. Finally, when he let go, Natasha was able to annoyedly reply.

"I did... five million times. And you would know that if you ever bothered to check your phone." she said, arms folded in irritation.

"Oh... hi Bucky!" Theodore failed to let his sister's words phase him as he hugged her girlfriend. He hugged her tightly until Natasha got annoyed (which didn't take very long) and separated the two. Only for him to move on to Owsla. "I don't know you, but here's a hug for you too..."

"The alien looked a little shocked but hugged him back happily nonetheless. Now that the hug fest was finally over however, it was down to the first order of business... cleaning up the hot mess before them so he would at least em style="box-sizing: border-box;"blend in/em as a functional homosapien with the rest of them.

"Theodore," Nat sighed, holding her brother by the shoulders to look at him seriously.

"Yeesss?" he replied in true dork fashion, a ridiculous grin on his singed face.

"How long has it been since you've brushed your teeth or hair, taken a shower, eaten a good meal or done the laundry?"

"Umm," Theodore took a long time to think about it. "I don't know, what day is it?"

"Theodore!" Natasha scolded. Said person visibly cringed. However, the semi-red head had already expected this. Although technically she was his little sister, she had always been the big sister in the relationship; she was always getting her brother out if trouble and helping him. Knowing him so well, she had come fully prepared. Taking a bar of soap from her backpack, she handed it to him. "Use the safety shower."

""But-"

"Go! And give me your lab coat!"/p

Resigned to Natasha's directions, Theodore handed over his lab coat, grabbed the soap bar, and went to go find the safety showers.

"Don't drop it!" Bucky called after him, laughing. Referring of course to the bar of soap in his hand.

Theodore turned to give the blonde a 'really!' look before leaving. Natasha meanwhile struggled to contain a childish giggle and maintain her serious demeanor.

"Bucky, here's ten bucks , please go find him something decent to eat, please?" Natasha begged her girlfriend, handing her the bill in her wallet.

Bucky glanced at Owsla. She didn't want to leave her girlfriend alone with the suspicious blue thing. Yet, looking at Nat's pleading face, she couldn't say no. "Alright," the blonde conceded. "...be careful." she muttered quietly before leaving.

"I've been in science labs before," Natasha sulked as her girlfriend left. Turning to Owsla, she continued. "I have other hygiene necessities right here, go lay them all out on the lab table over there while I clean his lab coat. Afterwords, we can put it in the fume hood to dry out and hopefully remove some of the stench.

Sonny and Joel in the meantime were on their own adventure. An adventure that had currently lead to Sonny and Joel covered in blood as the Mau5 bandaged his best friend's arm.

Earlier...

"Alright man, I got the keys let's-" Joel stopped, seeing Sonny still starring at the door despondently. Natasha and Jamie had left with Owsla a few minutes ago and he hadn't moved away from the door since. Joel clapped him on the shoulder, effectively snapping him out of his zone as the goblin jumped at the sudden contact. "Come on. The sooner we get there and get it moved the sooner we can go catch up with the others."

Sonny gave an affirmative nod, "Right." but still made no effort to move.

Taking his best friend by the shoulders, he pushed him insistently down the hallway towards the garage. The two of them had decided to take Laurie's family van because there would be plenty of room to put the pod in the back of it. Glumly Sonny allowed to be pushed away from the front door, down the hallway, through the laundry room to the garage.

"I'll call my Dad to make sure they leave it alone until we get there." he said.

Joel nodded, having pushed the goblin all the way to the passenger's door of the van he walked around to the driver's side. "Good thinking. Do you want me to call Roadhog to meet us there?"

As they got into the car, Sonny gave Joel a childish pout. "Since when did you and Roadhog start becoming such good buddies?"

"Since you started acting weird and I needed to know what was going on." Joel said, backing out of the driveway.

"I'm not a kid." the goblin pouted.

"No, but you have a kid now. Would you have even told me if I hadn't flown down here? Just like you never told me about Charmaine?"

"I couldn't tell you over the phone Joel, you're little 'mini-me' said so." grabbing his phone, Sonny dialed the number for his Dad's phone number, effectively ignoring any further comment from the Mau5 next to him. Sonny didn't need this shit from Joel right now, he had other things to worry about.

Joel on the other hand just continued driving. He thought he was pretty entitled to the chip on his shoulder. Best friends were supposed tell each other about major events in their life; last time he checked; adopting a kid was pretty fucking major. Not to mention it em style="box-sizing: border-box;"apparently /eminvolved him if Owsla's insistence on calling him 'Dad' continued. Inwardly he sighed; he shouldn't be mad though. Sonny was trying his best, I mean, he was a mom now and that wasn't easy. Joel laughed to himself. His own mom had had a hard enough time keeping up with him when he was young; he wished Sonny good luck with his own teenager. Stealing a glance at the mom in question, he tapped the steering wheel anxiously. He couldn't deny he was worried about the raven-haired man. Sonny really loved his daughter and it surprised the Mau5. She had only landed here, what was it? Two days ago? Yet he cared so much already. The mau5 shook his head. This was how idiots got hurt, they attach themselves emotionally to people too easily. I mean what if Owsla- Joel shook his head. Nope. He wasn't going to think about it. First things first- the pod.

"YOU WHAT!"

Joel jumped in his seat at the sudden shriek next to him. He looked at his best friend with wide eyes. Just what the hell was he screaming about?

Sonny ran his hand through his hair as he listened to whatever was being said to him over the phone. "No I heard you... well where is it now?" By Sonny's increased breathing, he guessed it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear. "Well when do they come by?" There was a pause before Sonny's eyes searched frantically for the dashboard clock. Finding it, he looked at Joel with wild eyes. "STEP ON IT JOEL!"

And Joel sure as hell wasn't about to argue. He sped down Holland Road at a speed that would put drag racers to shame... well if drag racers raced minivans that is. Joel swerved past another driver, leaving them in the dust before risking a glance at his friend. "What the hell is going on?"

"Annie got the neighbors to help her put the pod on the curb!"

Joel frowned. "Ok? She just moved it right? No big deal."

"TODAY'S TRASH DAY JOEL!"

"And suddenly Sonny's urgency made sense. If the garbage man got to the pod before they did... it would be completely destroyed. Joel stepped on the gas pedal without hesitation. The Barnes' neighborhood was the last left turn on the street, right next to the train tracks at the end of Holland Road. Swerving immensely, Joel made a smooth drift that eased the force of the fast turn on them both. Immediately taking another drifting turn on the first right (only one house length down) and back to the left to fly down the street where the house was about halfway down.

"JOEL!"

"I see it Sonny."

Straight ahead was a green garbage truck, filthy and disgusting and undoubtedly smelly. They were too far away to see if it had passed their house yet but they were quickly approaching.

"Joel! We're gonna crash!" Sonny yelped, a panicked arm reaching out to grab the mau5's shoulder.

"No we're not..."

The next seconds of Sonny's life seemed to slow down, yet pass twice as fast. He felt the slam of the breaks as Joel jerked the steering wheel all the way to the left. The horn on the garbage truck was loud but he couldn't hear it over the pounding of his own heart. The van skidded sideways down the road as it braked, anxiety increasing with every foot closer they came to the truck in front of them. Finally they came to a stop not five feet away from crashing into the green monstrosity before them. Immediately, Sonny's seat belt was off and he was running out the door towards the garbage truck.

"Sonny, wait!"

But Sonny didn't seem to hear him as he ran off. "Damn it Sonny!" Joel struggled with his seat belt for a moment before chasing after his best friend. "Wait!"

"The garbage men had already started yelling at Sonny who had disappeared out of sight behind the garbage truck.

"Are you crazy man? You're gonna get killed! You can't go in there!" One of the men shouted.

Joel didn't fully understand what the man had meant until he made it to the back of the garbage truck. There, in the truck, standing among the piles of trash, was Sonny. And right behind him was the door. The huge door that crushed all the trash together with hundreds of pounds of force. The huge door that could kill him.

"SONNY!" Joel screamed.

"Joel! I found-"

 **CRUNCH**

Joel couldn't make out any more of his words, blocked by the huge metal door that came down upon him. Or maybe the words had stopped all together. That door was crushing him to death in there.

The realization hit him harder than any garbage truck ever could.

"STOP!" Was that voice his? He couldn't tell. "STOP IT NOW! PLEASE!" Was he begging? Of their own accord, his feet pounded against the pavement to confront the driver. "STOP THE VEHICLE!"

The driver was a little porky, smelling of cheap cigarettes and bad cologne. He dragged his gaze over to Joel, an irritated look on his weathered features. "I can't just stop this rig 'cause you-"

"MY BEST FRIEND IS BEING CRUSHED TO DEATH IN THERE STOP IT NOW GOD DAMNIT!"

"Son," the 'clearly superior' garbage man looked down on him. " I've had enough of your jokes now move your vehicle out of the way."

 _Joke? He thought this was all some sort of SICK JOKE?_ "YOU THINK I'D-"

"Boss!" One of the garbage runners interrupted him. "Mios dios! There's a man in there!" when the driver didn't move an inch, the runner continued, "Do you want lawsuits boss?"

The driver gave the man a hard look before reaching over to the controls to turn it off. For Joel, the flick of a switch had never been slower. The sounds of the truck powering down did little to calm ears as he ran back to the crushing trap of death machine. When the death door finally opened, Joel climbed in without hesitation. The other garbage man seemed like he wanted to protest but he could go fuck himself.

Where was Sonny? Where had he gone? He refused to except that the goblin may be gone for real this time.

"Sonny! Sonny! Come on man, this isn't funny!" Joel blinked, feeling an unfamiliar moisture coming to his eyes. "AHH!"

Out of frustration, Joel began flinging garbage bags out of the way, digging desperately through the piles of black plastic. Finally he heard a faint whine.

"Sonny?" The mau5 looked around in panic. Where had the sound come from? Had he just imagined it? No, there is was again! Where was that muffled sound coming from? And then he saw it. A glimpse of a shiny, metal-like material. On instinct, he lunged for it and began digging it out of the rubbish around it.

""Nnnggh"

"He hadn't imagined it! The sound was coming from here! When he had finally gotten the object uncovered, he starred at it confused. Just what the hell was he looking at?

"Uuuhg"

He heard the sound again. It was definitely coming from inside. What the hell was in there? And where the fuck was Sonny? The object was a curious egg shape with strange patterns made with glowing green lines on the surface. Could this be Owsla's pod? What they had come for in the first place? He looked out, back towards the street and realized for the first time they were past the Barnes household... which meant the pod was somewhere in the back of this garbage truck. He looked back at the curious object. This had to be it. The mau5 reached out to touch it and as soon as his palm made contact with the surface, he heard the hiss of air as it unsealed. Touch sensitive. Nice.

Joel readied himself in case something jumped out at him; he had heard some living, breathing thing in there hadn't he? But his stance released as he saw just what living breathing thing was inside.

"Sonny!"

"Nnnggh..." he groaned.

He was completely curled in on himself to fit inside the small pod. Crammed in there, he was laying in a ball on his left side. Joel was sure that for the first time in his life, Sonny was thankful he was so short and small.

"You okay man?" Joel's anxiety began thumping wildly in his chest.

Sonny only groaned in response. "It hurts..." he mumbled.

"Well of course it hurts you idiot! Come on, lets get you out of here..." intent on getting Sonny out of the cramped pod and the smelly garbage truck, he grabbed his right arm and pulled.

Immediately Sonny cried out in pain. "Ah!"

Joel stopped. "Sonny? Sonny what's wrong?" that's when he noticed the blood, the sticky red mess seeping into Sonny's black shirt.

"Hey! What's going in in there?"

"Get out! You're putting us behind schedule!"

Shouts from outside barraged his ears. Fuck those guys and their stupid schedule! His best friend was hurt. "Call the-" Joel bit his lip. No, he couldn't do that. No one was supposed to know Sonny was here or that the Barnes were his biological parents. No one was supposed to know Jamie was his biological sister either. But if Sonny was admitted to the hospital, the press would find out.

"If you don't get out, I sure as hell will call, I'll call the police!"

"Even worse. Damn, what was he supposed to do? First things first, got to get Sonny out of here. Putting one arm under his knees and one around his shoulders, Joel carefully extracted the semi-conscious body of his best friend from the cramped space of the pod.

Carrying his limp form, Joel made his way out of the truck. Then, sitting on the edge of the truck back with Sonny in his lap, slid off instead of passing the goblin to one of the other men around him. Ain't none of these motherfuckers going to touch _his_ best friend. They were all unworthy sons of bitches that had done nothing to help him. Even when he had told the driver to shut down the truck he continued to argue, allowing Sonny to be crushed even longer than necessary.

Laying him down on the sidewalk, Joel began to inspect the damage. Sonny was obviously out of it as he allowed his head to loll, body completely limp. But where was that blood coming from? Joel glanced at his body and he didn't have to look far. The entire left side of Sonny's body was scratched up with... glass? Glass shards and bits were embedded in the cuts. The entire time Sonny had been in that pod, he had been laying in a bed of glass. Luckily for him, much of the glass had been very small so much of the damage was small cuts and scrapes, some superficial tears on his jeans. But, there had been a few bigger pieces that had stuck to the flesh in his arm, left exposed by the lack of clothing on his arms, unlike the skinny jeans covering the entirety of his legs.

Joel knew some basic first aid but this entire situation had left him in chock. He couldn't think. What the hell should he do? And the people around him weren't helping at all. The presence of the garbage men just hindered his thoughts. He had to do something before they called the police or the ambulance, and, and-

"Joel."

Joel's head snapped to focus on his best friend. The voice was dazed and hoarse but purposeful as he determinedly reached out with a bloody hand to grab Joel's shirt. "Get the pod."

"But you-"

"I'll be fine for a while, it's mostly superficial."

Joel just nodded. He didn't want to leave Sonny's side in this fragile state but he knew his friend didn't care about that. he was here for the pod. All the injuries he sustained getting it was insignificant. "Ok."

He had to get the pod so that he could make the garbage truck and it's men leave. Moving quickly, Joel climbed back into the garbage truck against the protests of the men around him. Then he rolled out the alien egg pod. It was surprisingly light for it's size but there was no way Joel would be able to lift it; it was still too heavy for that. Joel didn't bother being gentle as he rolled it out of the truck and onto the ground. If the pod could survive a compacting by a garbage truck it could survive a fall from the back of it. After pushing the pod off the truck, Joel hurried over to the ban that was still blocking the street. Once the vehicle had been moved and the garbage truck had gone, he hurried back to his friend. "Sonny... Sonny stay with me."

"Joel I'm fine, it's just... I feel nauseous... I'm gonna hurl."

"No, no, no, hold on..." Joel didn't want Sonny to throw up laying down, thats how people chocked to death on their own vomit (he had gotten drunk often enough to know). He felt bad moving him but he slowly turned Sonny on his side and almost immediately he was barfing. Joel let Sonny empty his stomach while he grabbed his phone. He dialed the number and waited anxiously as it rang on and on. He was almost scared no one would pick up when finally a gruff voice said, "Joel?"

"Roadhog? I need help. Sonny's hurt and what do I do?"

"Where are you?"

Joel looked around. They were about three doors down from the Barnes family house. "Outside on the sidewalk near the Barnes house."

"I'm on my way."

"Don't hang up!"Joel jumped in a slight panic. "Sonny is really hurt, what do I do?"

"What kind of hurt?" Roadhog replied, voice calm as usual.

"Well currently he's vomiting. He seems to be bordering unconscious and his arm-"

"Did he hit his head on something?" Roadhog asked.

"Huh?"

"He could have a concussion." The hog explained.

God. Of course. Why didn't he think about that? "Yeah it's possible, how do I check for that?"

"You need a flashlight to check and see if his pupils are dilating properly."

Joel shook his head. He knew that! So why did he ask? His brain was not thinking clearly. "I don't have one."

" I have one in my car, we can check when I get there."

"Ok but um, what do I do about his wounds." How much did he want to bet he knew this too?

"Wounds?"

"Yeah he scratched up pretty bad, he fell on some glass."

"How deep are the cuts?"

"Uh..." Joel glanced over Sonny's form. "Most of them are harmless but he's got a few shards in his arm that look pretty bad."

"You didn't think to mention this before the concussion?" Roadhog asked monotonously.

"Shut up! What do I do?"

"You need to take the shards out and disinfect the wound. Do you have any water on you?"

"Let me check the van." Putting his phone on speaker, Joel ran to the mini-van. He rummaged desperately for a stray bottle of water. The mau5 was relieved to find one only to realize it was empty. His search only yielded a half-full bottle of sprite. Sighing, he held the phone in his hand. "No. No water."

"Alright well the next best thing to use is urine."

"WHAT!" Joel shouted into the phone.

"Yeah just pee on the wound, it's standard emergency procedure." Roadhog said without a waver in his voice.

"I am NOT about to PISS on Sonny's arm!"

"Do you want it to get infected?"

"I'll just use the soda I found." Joel reasoned.

Roadhog's voice came ringing back, calm as always but lanced in disapproval. "You can't use soda to disinfect a wound."

"Well it's his own damn fault! He's the one who climbed into a garbage truck! I don't care, I'm not about to piss on his arm!" Setting the phone down on the sidewalk, he began taking the shards out of Sonny's arm. The goblin squeezed his eyes shut as he did, but otherwise stayed silent. Then, unscrewing the cap of the sprite bottle, poured it over the length of the wound. Sonny hissed and tried to move, but the Mau5 held him down until all the suds had run off his skin.

"Now what do I do?" Joel asked, dabbing lightly at the wound his shirt.

"Assuming you don't have anything to stitch him up with, you need to bandage it tightly."

"Stitch him up?" Joel asked it like he had no idea what Roadhog meant, but he did. He seemed particularly dumb in this situation and it was starting to piss him off.

"Yeah, needle and thread... didn't you ever take a home-ec class?"

"I failed home-ec and not from a lack of tying"

"Sonny's going to die." Joel could em style="box-sizing: border-box;"hear /em the face palm in his voice.

"No he won't! Just... ok, uh... bandages." Joel looked around like bandages would magically appear. "I don't have any."

"Rip up your shirt then."

"My shirt? Oh my shirt." Yeah that's always what they do in the movies right? How hard could it be? Taking off his shirt, he tried to rip it apart without success. The movies had lied by defying physics again. "I can't rip my t-shirt, it's not ripping."

"Do you have any scissors? Or something sharp?"

"No I don't have scissors Roadhog! I'm in the damn middle of the road!"

"Find something sharp then."

Where the hell was he supposed to find-oh. The glass shards he had taken out of Sonny's arm! Those were sharp. Taking one particularly jagged piece, he ripped the cloth of his t-shirt into strips and got to work.

He was using those strips to tightly bandage Sonny's arm when he heard a car door slam behind him some minutes later. Tying his work into a knot, he turned to see Roadhog; and he had never been so relieved to see that man's face. Wordlessly, Roadhog checked Sonny's condition, a flashlight in his hand to check on the possible concussion.

"He's definitely got a concussion... Sonny?"

Sonny groaned. "I feel ok... but my arm hurts... and everything is dizzy and... yeah."

Roadhog's facial expression didn't change as he checked on the cuts all along Sonny's arm. "He should be alright. he need proper first aid, stitches included and don't let him sleep for more than two hours straight; you need to make he doesn't slip into a coma or get worse. Ibuprofen for the pain and don't let him drink either, it slows recovery."

Joel nodded. He knew most of that but this whole ordeal had made him lose his own brain so he was glad Roadhog had told him before he had to ask. "sonny and I have to hurry somewhere so I need you to do something for him." Roadhog only raised an eyebrow curiously so Joel continued. "That object over there." he pointed to the pod he had left in the road. "We need it to be stored in a secure location with the highest discretion you can manage."

Roadhog nodded. "Alright, I'll text you the storage information later," Walking away, Roadhog pulled out his phone. "Tim? yeah, I need your help with something..."

Joel on the other hand picked up Sonny again to put him in the car. Sonny blinked at him dazed, obviously still a little out of it. "I can... walk." He protested.

"Shut up." was the mau5's only reply. He was perfectly capable of taking care of the little goblin. He would have to stop somewhere and get a shirt for himself, proper bandages (and disinfectant), water, and ibuprofen. Perhaps an icepack. Sonny could get some proper medical care at the college right? He could survive until they got there. Sonny was semi-conscious but disoriented and obviously in a lot of pain, although he was refusing to whine about it. ' _You idiot_ '

Joel set Sonny down in the passenger's seat before reclining the seat so he could lay down.

Sonny shut his eyes tiredly. "Thanks Joel..." He muttered.

Without thinking, Joel kissed the top of the idiot's forehead. Immediately, he jumped away ready to spout off excuses but he didn't have to, the small man had already fallen asleep.

On the other side of town Theodore was freshly showered and dressed; nails clipped, hair brushed, deodorant on, his personal hygiene was taken care of. Currently, he was wolfing down a foot-long sandwich from subway, spicy Italian on Italian herbs and cheese, his favorite.

"Now then," Natasha began. "There's a more urgent reason for our visit today."

"I figured..." Theodore swallowed the bite in his mouth currently muffling his words. "What's up?"

"I need you to take look at Owsla here." Natasha said, putting an arm around her to bring the alien to his attention.

Theodore nodded politely at her. "Nice to meet you Owsla..." looking back at his sister he continued. "You're not setting me up on a blind date are you?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. She was not that clique. "No, she's an alien and we need you help keeping her alive."


	18. Smiles 'n' Rainbows 'n' Stuff

When Sonny blinked open his eyes, it took him a moment for him to realize where they were. Most of the dizziness and haziness had cleared but he was still a bit groggy from sleep. His head still pounded in pain due to the concussion but his confusion was gone. There were finally at UTA. Although he had been asleep the whole time, it still felt like it had been an eternity to get here.

"Wait there and I'll help you out off the van."

Against Joel's protests, he slipped out of the van on his own.

"Damn it Sonny, what did I just say?" Immediately, his best friend was by his side helping him walk. Sonny insisted he didn't need the help as Joel took his arm and put in on the Mau5's shoulders.

"I'm fine... don't worry about it..." He muttered, trying to wave him off. After all, only his arm had been damaged, not his legs.

"It's either this or I carry you inside, which would you prefer?"

Sonny's face started to heat. Carry him? Like some girl bridal style or a like some kid over the shoulder? Both were equally embarrassing. "There is no way I'm about to let you carry me inside this building!" he finally shouted, mortified by the prospect.

"Then shut up." So in the end, he allowed Joel to help him inside.

He noticed as they walked that his arm had subsided to a dull throb. Watching Joel support him, he also noticed his friend was carrying a CVS bag in the other hand and was now wearing a Lake ridge hoodie that he must have gotten from the local Kroger; he saw spirit wear for the neighboring high schools sold there all the time. For a moment he wondered what had happened to Joel's t-shirt, realizing that there wasn't black fabric beneath the green hoodie, un till he remembered: it was on his arm soaked in blood.

They made their way inside to the reception desk where they received name tags. The receptionist gave them strange looks and wrinkled her nose; probably because they reeked like trash. She didn't ask any questions though as she handed over the sticky identification squares. They of course had not given her their real names so thanks to Joel's quick thinking, Sonny's name tag read 'Jeffery Puttinbottom'... yeah thanks Joel. Joel had taken Sonny's usual alias 'Tim Smith' and he was kind of irritated about that but now wasn't the time. Sonny would get his revenge later.

They walked through the halls of the collage quietly, Sonny lost in his own thoughts. Owsla would be okay, right? She had to be. She was his child and he refused to let this condition be the end of it. He had the money to go to a good doctor if the need arose and he could always get back in the studio and make a new album if money became the issue. He had started that one song last night and he already really liked it. There was still tons of work needing to be done on it but... his thoughts were interrupted by his phone beeping. It was a text from Bucky.

" _Owsla is having a CAT scan. Medical ward. Viewing room 206. We're in the cafeteria getting lunch, see you there."_

Eventually, they found the room they were looking for. It was a long rectangular room built only for viewing the room beyond the glass which was the actual CAT scan machine room. Inside the machine, Sonny could barely see Owsla's feet poking out of the tube. His breath hitched. Was she okay? Was she scared? he couldn't explain the overwhelming concern he held for the blue being but he couldn't help it. He wanted to help and protect her... unlike some people. Sonny caught a glance of Joel out of the corner of his eye. The Mau5 was completely stoic as he starred at the room beyond the glass.

"I would've told you." Sonny said, continuing to stare at the machine before them, refusing to make eye contact with him.

"Huh?" Joel looked at the goblin confused for a moment before his own words came back to him _"Would you have even told me if I hadn't flown down here?"_ "Oh."

There was an awkward pause before the raven hair spoke again. "Are you gonna help me?" Sonny asked.

"What do you think I've been doing? If you're wounds need new bandages then-"

"I'm not talking about stupid flesh wounds right now!"

Joel wanted to argue that the damage to Sonny's arm was not some _stupid flesh wound_ but wisely kept him mouth shut.

"You're supposed to be Owsla's Dad but the first time you met her, you wouldn't even let her _touch_ you!" Sonny turned to give the Mau5 a full on glare, that particular memory a thorn in his side as he remembered Owsla's crying face.

"Sonny, I was in complete shock!" Joel defended himself, overwhelmed by this sudden verbal assault. Where the hell was all this coming from?

"She hugged you with open arms and you rejected her!"

"You can't just spring a kid on me and expect me to be all fucking smiles 'n' rainbows 'n' shit!"

"I didn't expect you to be overjoyed but you fucking broke her heart! She may not even want you around anymore!"

"Which is probably for the best." Joel confessed.

Sonny gawked at his best friend in response. "And just what the hell is that supposed to mean!"

"Sonny! You know me! I'm not exactly kid-friendly!"

"You're stuck in this situation whether you like it or not Joel. Take some fucking responsibility!" the goblin vociferated.

"See, there's that word again, but I don't have to own up; I didn't do jack shit!"

"Are you sure?" the shorter man challenged.

"What do you mean am I sure?"

"There's got to be a reason she calls you her Dad." Sonny reasoned.

"Sonny, just what the hell are you thinking?"

"Aliens and anal probes, Joel"

"What!" Joel shook his head. He knew Sonny believed in some pretty weird alien shit but this was still out there. "She isn't MY kid!"

The countering glare from Sonny made Joel regret his words as he froze over along with the rest of the room; the temperature plunging below zero. His voice was quiet. "Get out."

"What?"

"I SAID GET OUT" he screamed, retreating to the other side of the room.

"Sonny..." Joel reached out, offering comfort but Sonny only shoved his hands away.

Angry tears leaked from his eyes. "You can't just leave me alone in this."

So that's what this was. Sonny was scared. Sonny was upset about everything else but beneath it all, what he was really scared about was having to face it all alone. Joel finally understood what was really going on but, instead of being a good friend and assuring his best friend it would be okay, Joel got pissed off instead.

"You wanna talk about abandoning people?" Joel started, an obvious edge to his tone. "How about climbing into that damn garbage truck!"

"I was protecting my daugh-"

"No, your daughter is here getting medical exams. What you were doing was being a fucking dumb ass! What if you had died?"

"But I didn't!"

"That's not the point fuck wad! You knew you could've been killed but you did it anyway!"

Sonny looked at Joel stubbornly, taking a frustrated breath. Where was he going with this? Of course he went in there! "Is it really a crime to love someone that much? To be willing to risk serious injury?" ' _Because I'd do it for you too'_ he thought.

"WE HAD OTHER OPTIONS! There was no need for you to be so stupid! Owsla is what you're supposed to be protecting NOT THE DAMN POD! How dare you risk your life over something so trivial when there are so many people who depend on you! When you ran in there ready to die, did you really think it would be okay to leave Owsla alone without a mother? Did you really think it would be okay to leave me alone without my best friend? Did you really think it would be okay to leave Jamie alone without a brother? We can find a way to feed Owsla, but we can't replace you! Do you even realize how worried I've been?"

Sonny was completely flabbergasted at Joel's words, not only were they practically yelled at him but that there were so many of them. He was right, the pod would have survived the garbage truck whether Sonny had been in there or not. But, not only was he right, he had openly hinted at being worried about him. The words themselves and the intensity at which they had been shouted at him made him stutter through his own reply. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't think-"

"Yeah you didn't think!" Joel barged on. "If you weren't short and tiny enough to fit in that pod, you'd be dead by now!"

Now he was mad again. "It always comes back to this shit, doesn't it?" Sonny growled irritably. "You, insulting my height! I get it! I'm short! You can stop hating on me about it!"

"Hating on you? I don't hate that you're short, stupid! That's one of the things I love about you!"

On instinct, Sonny's head snapped up to look at Joel but the Mau5 wouldn't meet his eyes. As the words sunk in, he unsuccessfully tried to fight the blush rising to his cheeks. Why was that comment making him feel all warm inside? Probably because it was a compliment, compliments always make people feel good. Plus Joel never gave compliments so this was extra special. Yeah that must be it.

"I'm going to go find a vending machine..." Joel muttered and left, the door clicking as it shut behind him.

Now Sonny was thoroughly confused. He was supposed to be mad at Joel, and he was, but now he had all these other confusing feelings. He felt a bit guilty, hurt, and now he was blushing too... what the hell happened just now? Squeezing them shut, he rubbed his eyes tiredly deciding not to analyze it further; he didn't have the brainpower to figure it all out right now. He was still sore and his arm was throbbing, making concentration impossible. He didn't have time to sort all of this shit out anyways. Owsla. That's what he needed to be focused on right now. That's why he was here, that's why he had sustained these injuries. She was his primary concern. All the other shit would have to wait. As for emotions, he settled with irritated. At what, he wasn't 100% sure, but before he had a chance to figure it out the door opened again. But it wasn't Joel, instead his younger sister appeared.

"Hey." She greeted him.

"Hey." he replied, although somewhat glumly.

"That doesn't sound good."

"My child is in danger." He hissed.

"Oh. Right. That's a thing."

Sonny's new found irritation flared. "Why do you hate her?" he demanded.

"What?" Bucky looked up at him, caught completely off guard by the sudden outburst.

"Owsla. You hate her, don't you?"

Bucky hesitated. She knew Sonny was sensitive when it came to Owsla so what should she say? She decided to narrow her eyebrows at him. "And just what makes you say that?"

Sonny began listing off reasons with his fingers. "The way you look at her, the way you avoid her, you never try to interact or play with her... yet you love little kids!"

"Well if you haven't noticed she's not so little anymore!" Bucky countered. And that was true. Owsla's childhood had been short to say the least.

"You still avoided her all day yesterday!"

"Sonny! You can't just gain an alien daughter and expect me to act normal. I don't trust her!"

"And why not! When has she ever been anything other than her cute adorable self? What reason has she ever given you to not trust her?"

Bucky's eyes lost focus for a moment as the memory burned through her mind, still vivid. Following Owsla, going to the restroom, opening the door and there! Natasha. Struggling to stand, gasping for air, chocking on sobs. And then silence. It was all back to normal like it had never happened... as soon as Owsla touched her.

Jamie blinked. "Because... I..." How could she tell him what she saw? When Owsla was important to him? Would he even believe her?"

"Sonny!" Suddenly, Joel burst into the room. "The CAT scan is all done, Theodore said we can come see her as he finishes some of the final examinations."

Sonny glanced at the medical room with the CAT scan machine realizing there now was no longer two small blue feet sticking out of it. He had been so distracted, he hadn't noticed that Owsla had left. Damn.

"I'm coming." Without a second glance, Sonny ran off after his best friend to go find his daughter.

Jamie stayed put, not bothering to go after them. She gritted her teeth. That blue thing had done something weird to her girlfriend and she didn't want Natasha anywhere near the alien. Since the incident, she had done her best to never let the adorable semi-red head out of sight, always being there if Owsla was. She wouldn't let the creature get the chance to be alone with 'Nattie'. Bucky's fist curled. She had been through too much with that girl to let some alien put her in danger now. No. She wouldn't let that happen.

"Hello?"

A calm voice relieved her from her thoughts.

"Oh there you are Bucky," Natasha smiled at her. "You missed out on some good pudding."

"I think I'll live." smiling back at her, Jamie kissed her on the cheek. Taking a step back though, she realized the girl didn't seem to all be there; her eyes looked distant. "You worried?"

"Of course I'm worried! Aren't you?"

The blonde's expression grew hard as she looked away. No, why should she be? Why was Natasha for that matter? _'You're worried even though it tried to kill you?'_

"What?" Natasha exclaimed.

Bucky's head snapped up to look at worried green eyes, cloudy in confusion. She hadn't realized she had said it out loud. She couldn't avoid the issue now so she guessed now would as good a time as any. "Don't you remember anything that happened yesterday!"

The red-head took a startled step back. Jamie hadn't meant to say it so hostile but she couldn't hide her true feelings about this anymore. Owsla was a threat. She had seen it with her own eyes in that bathroom but no one wanted to believe her! People were going to start getting hurt, how could they not see that? And how about that panic attack? When was Nat going to tell her about that?

"I'm sorry for storming off, I shouldn't have done that..." Natasha starred at the floor guilty.

Jamie shook her head. "Not that, afterwords."

"When I was crying and you came after me? Thanks for tha-"

"You weren't _just_ crying! You were having a panic attack!"

Natasha's jaw dropped before looking away. "Wha-? No I wasn't, I don't have those, you're imagining things..."

"No I'm not, stop fucking lying!" Jamie shook her head, frustrated. "When were you going to tell me! Never?"

"I didn't want you to worry..." Natasha admitted.

"Oh really? I feel SO worry free right now!"

"I had my reasons, alright!"

"What reasons?" Bucky pressed.

"I-" Nat bit her lip and Bucky watched as she hesitated, which meant she wanted to lie.

"The truth Natasha!"

"I didn't tell you because they're always about you!" Natasha burst out, forcing the words from her body. In the silence that followed she muttered guiltily. "The only time I have panic attacks is when I'm worried about you."

"...So you hid it instead?"

"I didn't want you to feel like you were causing me pain..." Natasha looked away.

Jamie met her toe to toe in two strides, pulling the red head's face to meet hers. "But I am, aren't I?"

Nat searched Jamie's eyes. "That goes without saying Jamie, but it's not your fault-"

"But it is!"

"NO!" Natasha screamed. "It's not." After a pause, her voice softened. "We're both really fucked up, you know that. So _actually_ being close to someone hurts a lot more for both us, we just don't deal with emotions normally. It's not my fault you're not wired normally, just like it's not your fault I'm broken to begin with. It's not our fault one normal thing has the power to push us both over the edge..." Natasha caressed one of Jamie's hands on her face as she starred at her seriously. "I'll admit you are the one that makes me snap, but it's only because you're the only one who could truly hurt me. Our fights, our issues, they're normal. The way we deal with them isn't and that's why it hurts so much. But the way I deal with my problems isn't your fault."

Jamie paused as she thought about her girlfriend's words. Natasha was right. She herself had a lot of fucked up stuff in her life, stuff that had caused permanent damage, stuff that would always cause her to be a little more fucked up than everyone around her. Natasha caused her pain sometimes, a lot of it, but it wasn't Natasha that had caused the underlining pain within her. But it was okay, Natasha had fucked up shit in her life too, she was broken too. Hell, Sonny was definitely broken, so was Joel. Slowly Jamie started to laugh. She was fucked up, Natasha was fucked up, Joel was fucked up, Sonny was fucked up. They were ALL a bunch of fuck ups.

Natasha looked at Jamie concerned. Why was she laughing? "Jamie?"

When Bucky calmed down she straightened, removing her hands from their grip on her girlfriend's face, using them instead to hold Natasha's hands. "I have them too. The panic attacks. You could have said something, you don't have to go through it alone, you know."

Natasha's only reply was the arms she wrapped around the blonde's frame.

The blonde's demeanor remained calm as she tracked her thoughts back to the original threat: Owsla. "So? The panic attack in the bathroom?"

Jamie felt Natasha's head shake against her chest. "I swear to you I don't know anything about that. I only remember running off to the bathroom and then..."

"...and then?" she prompted.

Natasha blinked. "I don't remember... just that you and Owsla were suddenly there."

"That's it?"

The red-head nodded. "Yes. That's all that happened."

"But that's not what happened!"

"But that's what I remember happening!"

"Natasha-" Jamie sighed.

"I'm not lying!" She protested.

"I want to believe you-"

"Then believe me!"

"-but I know what I saw!" Bucky argued back.

Natasha sighed. "Maybe I blacked out from lack of air then and that's why I don't remember." she shrugged. "Just because I don't remember doesn't mean something couldn't have happened, panic attacks are stressful, you know what it's like..."

 _'But this isn't something you would just forget!'_ she wanted to protest. _'You were calm, you were conscious, you said things!'_ But instead Jamie said...

"You're right, that's probably what happened."

Natasha smiled brightly back at her, making the lie almost worth it. "We should go find Sonny and Joel, I'm not sure leaving them alone with my brother is such a good idea."

Jamie nodded. "Right." and followed behind her girlfriend back to the lab, but inside she was still worried. There was no way she could have forgotten that right? Unless... unless Owsla had done something to her memory?


	19. For lack of a better come back

"Mom!" as soon as Sonny and Joel entered the lab, Owsla came running over to them, flinging all four arms around her mother. "...Dad." she said with a slight glare as she looked at Joel, standing right next to them.

"Owsla." he replied, just as cold. He wasn't going to be intimidated by a little kid.

Sonny not-so-secretly elbowed Joel for his tone, smiling brightly at Owsla as the Mau5 doubled over beside him. "Hi sweetheart!"

"Ah, the Skrill X and the dead mouse," a lanky dork in a lab coat spoke up from across the room where he sat at a lab table. "Nice to meet you."

"Er..." Joel was immediately off put by the way Theodore said his name. It sounded so... awkward... and just plain... wrong. When he had run into the young scientist earlier, he had assumed the guy recognized him because he simply told him 'You can all come see Owsla now.' and walked off. The short lived encounter hadn't left room for introductions. Now hearing his name coming from Theodore for the first time, it unnerved him. Was it just him or was Sonny unnerved too? He glanced at his best friend beside him.

"Sonny and Joel is fine," the raven hair said, giving Joel a look. So it wasn't just him. "We're trying to keep a low profile..." Sonny said, always the nice guy, trying to come up with some viable excuse. "Thank you... for doing this." he added while shifting awkwardly, he had never met Theodore before either.

Immediately, Theodore had stars in his eyes. "Oh you don't have to thank me, it was my pleasure!" he sighed dreamily. "I got to run lots of tests and I can't wait for the results and all that glorious scientific data~!"

Sonny looked at the young scientist suspiciously before holding Owsla at arms length to look at her very seriously. "Did he do anything weird to you? Make you feel uncomfortable at all?"

Owsla looked at her mom, mortified. "Of course not!" Owsla suddenly looked uncertain. "I mean... all of it was pretty weird... but- but nothing like THAT!" she flatly refused.

"AH!" both mother and child jumped as Joel screamed beside them. There was a cotton swab sticking out of his mouth which Theodore had just stuck down his throat without warning. Joel tried to shove him off but Theodore had already walked off. "What the hell man!"

"I needed a DNA sample and you were just starring off into space so..." Theodore shrugged, carefully placing the sample aide for analysis later.

"Why the hell would you need that, I thought you were supposed to be analyzing the kid!"

"I am. I wish to compare Owsla's DNA to a human."

"Don't you have samples 'n' shit in the lab already for that!"

"Well we have samples to run in the lab but if I used one, I'd have to keep record of it," Theodore's glasses glinted, almost threateningly, as he turned to face them. "Which is a huge no-no."

Joel glared at the young scientist for a few seconds before turning away with an irritated grunt, for lack of a better come back.

"Well there are many test results and scientific findings to go over so if you two will take a seat we can get started." Theodore gestured to the lab stools around him and the three hesitantly took their seats, already unnerved by the dude.

"Why do I have to be here for this?" Joel grumbled half-heartedly. He was only here for Sonny's sake. He felt uncomfortable being involved in Owsla's medical results, it wasn't his business, he wasn't involved, and he wanted it to stay that way.

"Because you're her father!"

"I told you, she's not-"

"Joel." Sonny gave him a glare in warning. It was clear he didn't want to argue about this- not in front of Owsla.

As Owsla looked between her parents in unease, Theodore just smiled, clearly not reading the room well. "The insecurity of inadequacy is only to be expected in new parents."

Sonny reached out a hand to stop Joel before he could even get started but the Mau5 stood up anyway, against the appendage in his way. "What did you-?"

"Ow!" Sonny cried out from the pressure of Joel's body weight against his arm... his injured arm. He had been stupid enough to try and stop Joel with his injured arm.

"Sonny, wha-?" Realizing the problem immediately, Joel cursed. "Fuck Sonny, what the hell do you think you're doing, dip shit?"

"Joel, what the fuck? Could you at least try not to cuss in front of your kid?"

"Shut up! I need to do some proper first aid on your arm!" Joel tugged insistently on Sonny's good arm, trying to get the goblin to follow him to an empty lab table.

Sonny narrowed his eyes at him. "We're in the middle of Owsla's test results, wait a fucking minute!"

Joel slammed a clenched fist on a lab table. "Stupid numbers are not more important than your immediate health!"

Sonny gritted his teeth. "Joel-" but stopped when he felt a tug on his shirt. He looked down to see a blue hand gripping the fabric.

"Mom, you should listen to Dad. You need to take your health more seriously." Worry was evident in her tone, but Owsla's face said it all. She stared at her mother's injury in obvious fear.

"Ok..." Sonny conceded gently, calmly removing his child's grip on his tee so he could walk over to where Joel was standing. Joel gave him a scowl as he put down his vending machine snack and began taking out the contents of the CVS bag he had brought along. While Sonny had been passed out with his injuries in the car, Joel had stopped to get medical supplies. He pulled out a bottle of water, antiseptic, bandages... and a sowing kit.

Sonny's eyes went a little wide at the sight of it as he sat down, placing his arm on the table. "What's the sowing kit for?"

Joel didn't bat an eye as he began to unravel the goblin's arm. "For stitches, dumb ass."

Sonny tried to pull his arm away at the news but Joel wouldn't let him. The Mau5 held his wrist firmly as he placed the bloody rags of what used to be his t-shirt aside. "The wounds need them." and it was true. Now that he had a clearer head, Joel remembered exactly what to do (he really wished he could forget how helpless he had been earlier today when he was begging Road hog for help). There were three cuts in total, one on his upper arm close to the elbow and two on his fore arm. The bleeding had stopped but the cuts were still wide enough to need stitches, it wasn't going to heal well without them. Seeing the wounds for himself, Sonny didn't protest but his eyes didn't relax either. The first thing Joel did was pour water on them, knowing the sprite he had used earlier wasn't going to do the trick. Sonny seethed, drawing in a long breath between his teeth. The water stung quite a bit but he didn't want his daughter across the room to worry. Next, Joel opened a packet of disinfectant and began unfolding the small soaked cloth.

Seeing it, Sonny shifted in his seat uncomfortably, knowing it would hurt like hell. "Hey, you already washed it with water, that's redundant!"

"Shut up and let me see your arm."

"No way!" The sound of crying distracted him however, and he looked over to see Owsla in tears. "No no no, Owsla, don't cry. I'll let your Dad take care of me, I promise- GAH!" he let out a yelp of pained surprise as Joel began to disinfect the wounds without warning. After wiping the area clean, Joel grabbed the old bloody bandages, giving Sonny a break as he threw them away.

It was then that Natasha and Jamie entered the lab... and then froze as they tried to take in the scene before them. They had walked into what appeared to be complete chaos. Owsla was crying, so Sonny was crying and Joel was throwing away bloody fabric. Theodore was effectively ignoring them all as he poured over his notes.

"Sonny, what the crap happened to you?" Jamie asked.

And for the first time, the girls noticed Sonny had been wounded. Natasha had not seen them since they got back and although Jamie had, she had been too caught up in her fight with the emotional mess to notice.

Sonny wiped at his eyes with his good arm. "I kinda, well... I... I got injured." he answered lamely.

"Hmph." Joel snorted at the statement as he threw away the 'bandages' before returning to Sonny's side.

Bucky walked over to watch as Joel began measuring out threat to stitch up the injuries. "Don't forget to sterilize the needle." She commented.

"I was getting to that," Joel mumbled sourly. "Could you hand me the disinfectant?" Bucky easily handed him the cloth which he had left a ways down the table. Finishing the knot on the end of the string, the Mau5 wiped the needle in the folds of the disinfecting cloth before inserting it into Sonny's skin.

Sonny whined as it was pulled through. It hurt less than he thought it would but it freaked him out a bit. He cringed as he watched the thread slide through layers of skin. On the other side of the room, Owsla was cringing too. Pinching her nose, she was covering it with all four hands. Bucky tensed as she watched her girlfriend go over to check on her.

"Owsla? Are you alright?" Natasha asked, a hand on her shoulder as she helped the little blue being sit on a lab stool.

The alien shook her head. "It smells."

Nat looked at her confused. "What smells? The blood?"

Owsla nodded. "And the disinfectant."

Natasha narrowed her eyes. How could Owsla smell all that from across the room? As if hearing her unasked question, her brother spoke up.

"Owsla seems to have more heightened senses than we do, sense of smell, sense of hearing, yet-"

"GAH!" Sonny shrieked across the lab. "I thought you were going to warn me!" he barked at Joel, who had started stitching the second wound, apparently without warning the goblin.

"It hurts more if you're expecting it." the Mau5 explained.

Theodore looked up with a bemused expression. "I could've gotten you some anesthetic you know."

Sonny just glared at the young scientist. "Well thanks man, you're a great help." but the stern expression failed to have impact as he winced when Joel inserted the needle into his skin again.

Owsla, battling her super senses, held her nose as she ran over to him. "Mom?" she started crying again, this time, not from the smell. "Mom, are you going to be okay?"

Sonny smiled at her, wiping a tear off her face with his thumb. "Don't cry Owsla, or you're gonna make me cry."

Owsla sniffed, trying to make the tears disappear. "Okay."

"There." Joel cut the end of the thread. "Two out of three done." disinfecting the needle again, he began to re-thread it.

"You broke your glasses." Bucky realized, noticing cracks in the glass as she looked at her brother.

"Oh fuck, I did?" Sonny circled his eyes , trying to see the glass before them. Sure enough, there was a crack on the left lens but he had been so distracted by recent events he hadn't noticed. He sighed. "I might as well go to the eye doctor, I think I need a new prescription."

"Eyes getting old there, Sonny?" Natasha quipped, unable to resist the opportunity to tease.

"Shut up."

Turning around in his lab stool, Theodore spoke up. "You should take Owsla with you. As I was saying earlier, she has heightened senses but I'm afraid her eyesight is lacking."

"Isn't that strange though? Considering her other senses are so good?" Natasha asked.

Theodore nodded in agreement. "Yes..." he began mumbling, mulling over possible explanations. "My best guess is it could be a side effect from this regrowth process. It's so complex compared to known boundaries in science today, it wouldn't surprise me if there were side effects."

"Side effects?" Sonny glanced at Theodore worriedly as he bundled Owsla close to him, tucking her under his good arm as if he could protect her from everything there.

"Yes, although I wouldn't worry about it, he eyesight deficiency seems to be completely within the normal range of any human that would need visual aid. Her other senses are remarkable though, check this out..." Theodore stood up and walked to the far side of the room. Facing them, the gang watched as he mouthed something they couldn't even begin to hear. When he walked back over, he had a goofy grin ear to ear. "What did I say Owsla?"

Owsla on the other hand did not look so joyful. In fact, she looked kinda mad. "You said Nattie is stupid! That's mean!"

"Hey!" Natasha protested.

"That's amazing Owsla!" Sonny praised his daughter. "You heard a whisper clearly from over 20 ft. away!"

The little alien tried to hide her face as a fierce blush rose to her cheeks. "It's not that amazing..."

"Likewise, her nose is as good as your average house cat."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Sonny exclaimed, looking at his daughter with a whole new sense of wonder. Owsla meanwhile buried her face in his arm, trying to disappear.

"Now then, shall we move on to what I discovered about that pod goop sample you gave me?" Although the pod goop was gone, Natasha had managed to get a small sample from the thermos Owsla had used last night. She had given it to Theodore to analyze in hope to recreate it. With a chorus of nods as his encouragement, he began to spit out his analysis.

"It's very fascinating! I've never seen anything like it! You could almost say it's alive all on it's own... almost. It doesn't actually fit all the requirements. It's kinda like a virus that way. They aren't considered living things either, you know. It's because they can't reproduce on their own and-" Theodore continued to ramble scientific nonsense which the rest of them tuned out.

Theodore's scientific rambling finally got on Nat's nerves. "That's great!" she snapped. "But can you recreate it?"

Her brother shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, I would need way more time just to analyze it before I could even attempt it. However, I have discovered some interesting things that might help you." Heads turned to focus on the young scientist again. "We know that you guys lost some of the pod goop and from Natasha and Jamie's eye witness accounts, I can estimate the amount lost was probably about one serving. With that in mind, I must remind you of the definition of the regrowth process, Owsla?"

Owsla jolted out of the comfort of her mother's arm, not expecting to be called on. "It's the redevelopment of subject by the use of rejuvenating fluids to expedient their growth back to the original state of creation."

"Exactly. In other words, every time Owsla consumes the pod goop, aka, the rejuvenating fluid, she will grow at a rapid rate, closer to who she was originally."

People around the room slowly nodded, understanding the definition now. It made sense. Every time Owsla had eaten the goop, she had grown.

"But here's the kicker," Theodore's smile set everyone on edge, but unknown to him, he continued. "If there was one more dosage left, aka, the goop you guys lost, Owsla's growth has been stunted. She should have completed one more stage of growth by consuming that pod goop. Meaning, he 'original state of creation' was an adult.

Sonny swallowed nervously, 'stunted' didn't sound good in his book. "Is that... is that bad?"

"I wouldn't worry about it. It just means she'll age normally from now on... well whatever is normal for her species anyways. However this leads me to an interesting theory."

"A theory?" Natasha asked, concerned.

"Yes, but before I delve further, let me ask you a question Owsla. What is the name of your home planet?"

"What!" Sonny shouted. "She was raised here! She wouldn't know-"

"Gilgamesh."

The room froze. All eyes were on Owsla, who had covered her mouth with two hands, looking just as shocked as the rest of them.

Bucky narrowed her eyes viciously. "What did you just say?"

Owsla blinked. "Gilgamesh. That's the name of my home planet."

"How do you know that?" she pressed.

The alien frowned. "I- I don't know... I just do."

"How!" Jamie barked.

"I don't know!"

"I said how!" Jamie slammed her hand on a lab table as Owsla burst into tears.

Sonny's grip tightened on Owsla protectively. "Bucky!" he shouted, a glare in his eyes. He was appalled at the absolute aggression she showed towards his daughter. "That's enough! She says she doesn't know."

"Ah- if I may interrupt?" Theodore intervened. "I have a theory that explains this. Owsla said 'original state of creation'. Since I've already concluded she was originally an adult, I had to ask, 'Could Owsla have truly just been born into existence as an adult?'. The answer is no. Although that would explain her development physically, I'm afraid it wouldn't explain her mental capabilities. For example, her understanding of the English language, you can't just create learning. Where this true, her understanding of the world would be infantile, since her experiences on earth have been so minimal. So then if she wasn't created as an adult, we must assume she grew up somewhat normally and everything she knows was taught to her while she grew up on her home planet."

"Just as I thought. That's why she was able to recognize Sonny and Joel immediately." Natasha nodded along with her brother's theory.

"So just what does that mean?" Sonny asked the scientist still very confused. "Owsla has never mentioned her home planet or anything about it before."

"It means Owsla has a whole life of memories on her home planet she can't remember, most of which are probably essential to her survival here. If the aliens planned to send her here, she must have had some sort of training which would be in the memories she's lost." he explained.

"But if they're so essential to her survival here why can't she remember?" Joel asked, tying the last knot on Sonny's stitches (he kept getting distracted by everyone around him so it had taken a while)

"Because until she is physically capable of carrying out her purpose here, the mental knowledge that goes with it is unnecessary. In other words, I doubt her memories will be restored until she's an adult. I'm afraid however that because the rest of the pod goop was lost, we'll never be able to regain these memories."

"Never?"

"Well..." Theodore paused. "I guess it's possible. I theorize that all this information is in Owsla's brain but this fluid is the key to unlocking it. Eventually the memories could be retrieved I suppose, but without the 'key' it will be very difficult."

Bucky sat down, folding her arms. "So you're telling me she knows the name of her home planet because any normal teen would know that?"

"Exactly." Theodore smiled. "Now you're getting it. She knows only what she needs to know as a teenager until she develops into the next stage, adult hood. But, that won't be happening of course so her knowledge is currently equivalent to that of a teenager."

Joel frowned. After finishing the stitches on Sonny's third gash and bandaging the entire arm, he had sat with the others, listening to all this scientific mumbo jumbo. But now a question tugged at his mind... what about their original question? "So why wouldn't she know if she can digest human food or not? Normal teenagers know what they can and can not eat."

"Ah, good question," Theodore pushed his glasses back onto his nose, excited that the others were getting into the scientific swing of things. "That information would have been unimportant until the pod goop, her food source, ran out. That was supposed to happen after she completed the adult stage of growth so I'm afraid that information is irretrievable- locked away with her other memories

"Noooo!" Sonny was the first person to express the crushing disappointment hitting them all by letting out an anguished cry. Was he really doomed to watch his daughter starve to death? Did this really mean she was going to die? Had it all been for nothing? He barely registered Joel squeezing his hand, awkwardly trying to comfort his best friend (emotional support was not one of his strong points).

"However!" Theodore raised his voice over the commotion before they all lost it. "The tests I've done lead me to believe there's a good chance she can digest human food."

"Really!" Nat jumped up excitedly, expressing the new surge of hope spreading trough the gang.

Theodore nodded, smiling along with his sister's enthusiasm. "It's strange, I wouldn't think it possible but the MRI's and x-rays show an anatomy almost identical to the human female."

"So which is it?" Joel asked, getting annoyed. "Can she or can she not digest human food?"

Theodore shrugged. "There's only one way to test that."

A tense silence settled upon them all... until a loud snacking filled the air instead. Inevitably, all eyes turned towards a certain Mau5 and a bag of vending machine Cheez-its.

Bucky broke the silence first. "Joel! How could you eat Markiplier's children at a time like this?"

Joel didn't bother swallowing before trying to speak. "I wuz hungre," he swallowed. "Here, you want some Owsla?" he held out the bag to the little alien in an attempt to rectify his mistake.

Owsla was tentatively reaching into the bag when Sonny karate chopped it out of Joel's hand. "WWWWAAAAH!" (he provided the sound effect)

"Shit! Man, what the fuck!" Joel screamed, jumping away in surprise as pain exploded in his fingers.

"Mom, what?"

"No! I will not have my child's first meal be some lame vending machine Cheez-its! Wae shall go to On The Border! Tonight, WE FEAST!"

There was a moment of silence as the gang processed Sonny's proclamation. Natasha spoke first. "...Sonny get down from the lab table. Standing on it does not create dramatic effect, it just makes you look like an idiot."


	20. BONUS CHAPTER 20

**PLEASE NOTE: Owsla is still a child in this chapter, not a teenager**

"Come on, please!"

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no!"

"But Nataaashaaaa!" Sonny begged.

"I said no and that's final. I am NOT going to wear that costume!"

About a week ago, Sonny had made the declaration that everyone had to participate in trick or treating this year. While most were excited for the candy, they rolled their eyes when Sonny kept insisting they should have a group costume. They had already rejected many of his ideas- the rainbow, a band of pirates, social media, ...Disney princesses... and then he suggested everyone going as EDM artists. Jamie and Aurora (Phish) were already on board with the idea, deciding to go as their already determined EDM equivalents- Bucky as Skrillex and Phishie as Dillon Francis. Owsla had agreed to be Zedd and Sonny and Joel were going at Guy and Thomas from Daft Punk. Now Sonny was begging Natasha to be her own EDM equivalent- Deadmau5.

"But it'll be fun!"

"There is absolutely no way in hell am I going as Deadmau5 for Halloween!" With that, Natasha grabbed her bowl of chips she had poured and plopped down on the couch in the living room.

But the goblin just followed her, completely determined to bother her until she gave in.

The gang was hanging out in the living room today. Joel was playing a game on the huge TV, lounging in the recliner with Meowingtons on his lap. Aurora and Jamie were on their computers, editing files from their respective interests, Jamie on a music track and Aurora on a video. Owsla likewise was sitting on the floor reading some old comic books. Natasha sat next to Jamie, watching her work in Ableton Live. It was a wonder Natasha would never tire of, watching her girlfriend create songs.

"I already had that old prototype Mau5 head shipped here. It'll be here any day so you might as well just go with it." Joel said, gunning down a few more bad guys as he said it.

"How can you just go along with all of this?" Natasha asked, baffled by the level of 'chill' Joel seemed to have about this entire situation.

The Mau5 just shook his head in surrender. "Sometimes it's just easier to let him have his way rather than fight him."

"You sound like a husband talking about his wife..." Natasha mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing!" quickly moving on, Natasha continued her previous argument. "Why don't you two go as yourselves! Why do you have to get me to do it?"

"Because if we went as ourselves it wouldn't be a costume!" Sonny whined. "And it has to be you because Bucky said you're the mini-Joel!"

Natasha turned to her girlfriend beside her. "So this is your fault!"

"Don't drag me into this." Jamie shook her head, refusing to let herself get involved. Being siblings, Bucky had long ago figured out to pick her battles with her brother. The goblin's stubbornness was an overwhelming force not to be taken lightly. Sadly however, it seemed her girlfriend had yet to learn this lesson.

"Come on Natasha, Halloween is a holiday where you get to dress as someone you're not- someone you wish you could be."

"I don't WANT to be Joel!"

"I feel a little offended..." Joel commented, frowning as he shot a couple more bad guys. "I think..."

"Well don't. I mean if I became you I'd have to be a guy. I'm a girl and I'd rather stay a girl."

"Yeah, but as a lesbian, if you were me, you'd get a lot more girls." Joel pointed out.

"Well..." Natasha took a moment to think about his statement. "I guess that's true, but-"

"Hey!" Jamie shouted beside her. "So you don't love me anymore? I see how it is." pouting, Jamie got up to sit next to Phishie instead.

"But they'd only be interested in me for being famous and that's shallow!" Natasha finished her statement before following after her girlfriend. "Jamie!"

"No, go away, I don't love you anymore." she teased.

"Fine. I'll just sit here until you do." And with that, Natasha sat at Jamie's feet, looking up at her daring her not to laugh as she continued to stare.

"Then you'll be there till the day you die." Jamie said unwavering.

Natasha only continued to stare in response. And stare. And stare. And stare...

Jamie tried to hold back her smirk, but it was useless. "Fine. I forgive you." She admitted her defeat.

Smiling, Natasha sat next to Jamie again. "You know, I was thinking..." Natasha started, looking back at Sonny to continue their previous discussion. "Jamie looks so much like you already, and I... well I'm about the same height as Joel. With a mau5 head... we would look just like the two of you."

Sonny nodded eagerly. "That's what I've been trying to tell you all along!"

"And we're dating..." Natasha continued. "So the entire evening would be skrillmau5 cosplay..."

Jamie smiled mischievously. "We could make an entire album of photos."

Natasha grinned at her girlfriend. "Yeah, no one would see my face with that Mau5 head on, Jamie looks exactly like you. We could kiss and hug and make out and take photographic evidence of it... and everyone would think it was legit."

"You... you wouldn't dare." Sonny stared in horror at the red-head narrowing her eyes at him.

"Would I?"

Sonny was now forced to decide between his prideful sanity or Owsla's Halloween. "You're pure evil!"

"No, I"m just a manipulative bastard who doesn't like being told what to do."

"So... you ARE Joel?"

Natasha's face flushed. "Shut up!"

"Hey mommy?"

Sonny stopped arguing with the red head to look at his daughter, tugging on his pants sleeve. "What's up sweetie?"

The little alien looked up at him in earnest, wide eyes shinning brightly. Holding up a comic book she had been reading, she held it up for him to see. "I want to be Spider man for Halloween!"

Around the room confused eyes looked at the little alien. The gang was obsessed with the Avengers so Spider man wasn't exactly a name that came up often. Of course, Spider man was technically a part of the Avengers in the comics. However today we are all faced with the unfortunate reality that the greedy company Sony owns Spider man and therefore we will never see him in the movies.

"Owsla... why would you ever want to be Spider man for Halloween?" Sonny asked, purely confused as to what his daughter was thinking.

"W-well... because..." Owsla looked down at the ground before bursting out determinedly, "Because spiders have more than two arms, just like me!"

And at that moment, Sonny's heart just fucking melted.

"That's it. We're all going as the Avengers for Halloween."

"Wait, what?" Natasha looked at him shocked.

"We're going as the Avengers for Halloween." Sonny repeated. "Pay attention Natasha."

"But... I already went as Black Widow once for Halloween..."

"Same, I've already cosplayed as Bucky before also." Jamie agreed.

"Don't care. Little child trumps all your Halloween desires." Sonny said, effectively cutting off further negative comments.

"I call Hawkeye!" Phishie declared, hand up like she was being called on in class.

"Yeah see? That's the spirit!" Sonny high-fived Phish.

Joel, who had seemingly not been paying attention, spoke up. "If you two have done it before, that just means you have the costumes already..."

"Actually no," Natasha admitted. "That time I borrowed it from Karmina, I don't own the costume."

"You don't even need a costume Rose," Jamie smirked. "You are Natasha, we could just drag you around anyways"

"Hey!"

"No!" Sonny pouted insistently. "Everyone has to go in costume!"

"If Jamie and I are going as Winterwidow (ship name for Bucky x Natasha), with Phishie as Hawkeye and Owsla as Spider man... who are you and Joel going to be?" Natasha asked, turning her head questioningly, trying to imagine Sonny and Joel as Avengers, even just in costume.

"I'm going to be Captain America, duh." Sonny said, as if it were completely obvious.

Natasha blinked for a moment, trying to decide if he was serious and finally burst out laughing along with her girlfriend beside her.

"What's so funny!" the goblin demanded.

"Sonny... you're half his size!" Natasha explained, giggling.

Jamie nodded in agreement, joining in on the merry sounds herself. "You could never pull off the 's dorito." ( 's stands for Chris Evans and it's pronounced like Sevens for those who don't know)

"So!?" Sonny protested. "It doesn't matter!"

Phishie looked over at the other man in question, currently killing people on the PS4. "What about you Joel? Which Avenger are you going to be?"

"He should be Iron man. I mean, he's already an asshole and that's half of the costume right there." Natasha half-joked.

"Ironman? My day job is Genius Billionaire playboy philanthropist." Joel said, somehow saying it with a straight face, pressing the X button on the controller a few times.

While the rest of the gang began to laugh, Sonny pounced on the statement excitedly. "Does that mean you'll be Iron man?"

"Yeah sure I'll go as Iron man, happy?"

Sonny smiled at his best friend exuberantly. "Extremely!"

DAYS UPON DAYS LATER...

It was a little over a week before Halloween. Natasha and Phishie sat in the inspiration room deep in their creative head space. The two of them loved making videos together and their latest project was the criminal tale of Iris Wolfe- underground doctor. Natasha loved to write scripts and act, while her best friend liked to stay behind the camera in the form of story boarding and editing. The two of them had been doing this for four years now, all throughout high school, and this fall Natasha would be attending UNT for their film program.

Jamie watched her girlfriend work, a small smile on her face. She herself was working on her latest music track, hoping to put out another album by the end of summer. It was hard work, a daunting task even if she had been around music all her life, but she loved it. Taking a moment to think she considered the upcoming Halloween. She herself had the money so she had indulged in a good costume. Bucky was her namesake after all, how could she do anything less? She was pretty sure Phish had already worked out hers and she knew Sonny and Joel would be responsible about getting theirs and Owsla's but... what about her girlfriend? Jamie sighed, she was almost 100% sure Natasha hadn't worked on hers at all. And she didn't have to wait long for her suspicions to be confirmed.

Suddenly, the door to the Inspiration room slammed open. "WHO'S STRONG AND BRAVE HERE TO SAVE THE AMERICAN WAY?!" Sonny burst into song.

Clearly he was very excited about the red, white, and blue musceled costume he was wearing. His Captain America costume had finally come in the mail. Currently though, the helmet was hilariously lopsided, the hair stuck underneath it plastered to his face.

"The Star Spangled Man with a plan!" Jamie sang joyously in reply with no regrets. Captain America was ultimate bae, right up there with Bucky and real life Bucky, Sebastian Stan. Oh my god Seb Stan. Wait Jamie, focus!

"Your costume came in." Phishie observed.

"Costume? What are you talking about? I AM Captain America." Sonny declared in bravo.

"Ok, well, Captain America? Why don't you go 'have a plan' somewhere else?" Natasha said, a bit annoyed by the intrusion. Currently she was trying to focus on the laborious task of story boarding.

"The world isn't in peril right now," 'Captain America' explained. "A small child's Halloween is."

"I thought you had already determined everyone's costume for Halloween, Sonny." Phishie said non-nonchalantly, not even bothering to look up as she corrected another typo in the script she was editing. Nat was a great writer, but a speller she was not.

"I have!" Sonny agreed with gusto and obvious pride. "But _some_ people haven't made progress on their costumes." He said, staring intently at Natasha.

When Nat finally noticed the intense gaze, she looked up like a deer-in-headlights. "Wait, what?"

"Luckily I have taken the liberty of getting your costume for you."

"YOU DID WHAT!" Natasha screamed, completely caught off-gaurd. "H-how! W-why!" She sputtered.

Sonny narrowed his eyes at her, "Because if I didn't do anything, you wouldn't have a costume!"

He was right. She had harbored no intention of buying a costume since the beginning. She tried not to be embarrassed at being caught in her devious non-intentions, but a blush made it's way to her cheeks anyway. "W-well... I can't wait till it gets here and doesn't fit you jerk face!"

Sonny smirked. "I got your measurements from Jamie."

Natasha gaped at her traitorous girlfriend. "Jack! How could you!"

"I love you Rose, really, but he was going to kill me and I know you don't have the money to get the costume right now... besides, I see no reason for you not to go trick-or-treating with us." Jamie admitted.

"UUUUUUUGGHHH!"

Sonny heard Nat's screams of frustration as he walked off. He knew Natasha was going to be mad at him when he told her but it would be worth it. He really wanted Owsla's first Halloween to be special and he wasn't going to let Natasha's stubbornness ruin it. Hell, he had somehow managed to get Joel in on this and that was a feat in of itself. Taking off his costume and putting it away, the goblin went to go check on the Mau5 who was currently outside working on his own costume.

"Dad, be careful!"

"I got it Owsla."

Joel re-adjusted the annoying hair dryer cord that kept getting in his way. Today, he was outside to work on his costume. Originally he had planned on buying a costume... until her realized that even the really good Iron Man costumes were still crappy morph suites. And that was lame. And Joel wasn't going to be some lame ass, he was going to be a bad ass. So thanks to Jamie, he had found this special plastic cosplay shit that was easily mold-able when heated. After buying a bunch of it, he wasn't exactly sure how to proceed, but Natasha had helped him measure and design the pieces using her sowing pattern knowledge. It had taken a lot of trial and error but finally they had gotten it to a pattern that looked pretty authentic. So, after cutting all the pieces out, he was currently forming them to the desired shape by the use of heat- aka the hair dryer. The small device roared to life as he turned it on, heating the plate for his right shin. Slowly he curved it to the specification so it would bend comfortably over his leg.

"Woooow!" Owsla marveled at the 'magic' before her. "That's so cool, Dad!"

Joel (unsuccessfully) tried to hide a smirk at the praise. Owsla had come outside to watch her Dad work on the costume and had been amazed at the work he was doing the entire time. That's right. Bad ass.

"Isn't your Dad awesome?" Joel turned to watch Sonny pick up the kid to rest on his hip. "It's cool Joel!" the goblin beamed down at him.

This time Joel didn't bother hiding is smirk. "Thanks man..."

The plan was to spray paint the pieces red and gold respectively once they were all shaped. Then they would attach them to an Iron Man morph suit. They didn't have the time to create a fully-functioning plastic suit like some of the crazy cosplayers out there, but making the plates and attaching them to a base would be a good in-between. It was a basically a 3-D morph suit for the only part of the morph suit that would actually show were the joints, since they couldn't make working joints in time. Joel had of course already ordered an Iron Man helmet.

"Mommy!" Owsla's face brightened as she held on to her Mom. "Dad's costume is so cool! We'll be the Avengers! We'll avenge the night and everything!"

Sonny laughed. "And everything?"

Owsla nodded excitedly. "Uh huh! I'll shoot all the bad guys with my web shooters, just you watch!"

Sonny listened to Owsla's excited rambling as watched Joel work, positively ecstatic that Joel was working so hard for Owsla's Halloween. The Mau5 may not be ready to recognize Owsla as his own yet, but the goblin liked to think his actions spoke louder than his words. He knew of course that a lot of this was just Joel's excitement of getting into costume (thought they Mau5 would never admit it), but Sonny liked to believe that deep down a part of the Mau5 was doing it for Owsla's sake. Granted a very small part, but still, a part. Being Joel's best friend, he knew him better than anyone, and he knew that although Joel had a tough exterior (a very tough one at that), he was still a sentimental human being like the rest of us inside (though still probably an asshole at his core, just kidding... well, sorta). Speaking of the sentimental though...

Sonny put Owsla back on the ground who was still talking about all the world-saving she would be doing on Halloween. "Hey Owsla, you know who else is really excited to save the day? Nattie. I bet she'd really love to hear all about how you're going to defeat the bad guys!"

"Ok!" Owsla beamed at her mother and ran inside, practically bouncing in exuberance.

Sonny doubted Nat would manage to stay mad at him after talking to that cute face. He got some alone time with his BFF and Natasha's anger off his back at the same time, killing two birds with one stone. Owsla really was the cutest stone ever.

Sitting down in the grass next to Joel, the raven hair rested his weight on his hands, stretching out his legs. "Seriously though, the costume looks great."

"Thanks..."

An awkward silence settled in the air with only the sound of the hair dyer between them. Until Sonny made it even more awkward of course.

"Something smells nice out here."

Joel stopped in his tracks for a moment. "Dude don't say that man!"

Sonny looked at his best friend confused. "Why not?"

Joel looked a bit embarrassed. "Because that smell is me you idiot!"

"You wear cologne?" Sonny looked at him uncertainly. Joel wasn't one to wear smelly stuff and deodorant doesn't smell that strong.

"No!" Joel flat out denied. "I've just been out here working all morning... I stank so Natasha sprayed me with that smelly shit."

"What smelly shit?"

"I don't know!" Joel shouted dismissively, trying to get back to work. "I just went inside to get a drink and Nat just fucking hosed me down with something."

Sonny just looked at his best friend with a 'Whaaaaa?' expression on his face.

"Something about her brother always stinks so she carries men's body spray all the time..." Joel explained, effectively turning away from Sonny on purpose, hoping the smaller man would stop bothering him about it.

But apparently that didn't deter him because next thing Joel knew, he felt himself being grabbed from behind. Arms around his torso, Sonny hugged Joel close to him until he was practically laying on his chest. Snugged tightly within the goblin's grip, Joel watched as Sonny bent down to sniff at Joel's clothing. After inhaling deeply, the goblin sat up.

"Huh. So it is you."

"Of course it is you dumb ass! What did I just say?" Joel shouted embarrassed. The Mau5 sighed against his friend, waiting to be released so he could sit up again. A moment passed and he still wrapped in Sonny's grip. "...Let go of me."

"Aw," Sonny whined. "But you're warm"

"W-what!"

"It's cold out but your body heat is warm." Sonny explained.

"Then you shouldn't have come outside without a fucking coat on!" Joel scolded.

"I didn't think about it..." Sonny trailed off, still not moving from his position around Joel. "You should wear this more often."

"Wear what?"

"The smelly shit. It smell nice."

Joel frantically pulled away before Sonny could watch the blush rise to his checks. What the hell was with this guy today! Why was he saying such embarrassing shit! "Not really my style..." he excused.

"Aw, well I'm going inside to make hot coco, don't stay outside too long or you'll freeze." Sonny said before leaving without further comment.

Joel meanwhile rubbed his face with his hand. He needed to take a walk to calm down from that. Or maybe a really cold shower.

Halloween Day...

"Pew! Pew Pew! Pew!" Owsla laughed joyiously as she preteneded to shoot things all around the house with her web shooters.

Currently, everyone else was getting ready for trick-or-treating, besides Owsla and Aurora who had been assigned the task of watching the alien while the rest of them got dressed because she was already in costume. Dressed as Hawkeye for Halloween, she was wearing the tight fitting red and black top with buckled black pants. Along with a pair of combat boots, the look was complete with the addition of her own archery equipment including her bracer, quiver (which she had painted black for the occasion), and bow. As Owsla ran around 'shooting' things, Phishie followed the little alien at a small distance to make sure she didn't hurt herself. She probably should stop Owsla from running rampant around the house but the blue being was having so much fun...

"Owsla, don't run through the kitchen!" Aurora warned. She wasn't going to stop the bundle of blue from running around, but maybe running through a room with lots of knives just waiting to be knocked over was a bad idea.

"Phish, you there?"

At the sound of Natasha's voice, Phish stopped chasing after Owsla to turn around and immediately she watched Natasha's figure retreat behind the hallway wall. Aurora narrowed her eyes confused. "You okay?"

"Y-yeah, j-just don't look!" Natasha said with flustered stuttering.

Phishie narrowed her eyes. "Okay?"

"Could you just pass me a blanket please?"

"Sure..." Taking the blanket from the couch, Phish passed it to her best friend without looking. Only after wrapping the fabric around herself did Natasha dare to come out of the darkened shadows of the hallway and into the light of the living room. Immediately, the semi-red head made a beeline for the couch and sat down, curling into a ball by hugging her knees to further cover her embarrassment.

"Is the costume too revealing or something?"

"N-no... you know I don't get embarrassed by shit like that!" It was true. Natasha had a lot of self-confidence about her body. Wearing things that were close fitting to the body, such as a morph suit or a black widow costume, didn't usually bother her.

"I know," Phishie agreed. "That's why I'm confused."

"It's just... I feel really bad wearing this costume," Natasha explained. "Sonny had to buy it for me." she pouted.

Phish made a face while Natasha wasn't looking. So it was her pride talking. "If it bothers you that much why don't you just not wear it? You don't have to go." Phish was honestly more surprised her BFF wasn't cursing under her breath right now, usually anger was the way Natasha chose to cover up her prideful embarrassment. Yet, mysteriously Natasha had seemed to quit being mad days ago.

Natasha groaned. "Ah, I can't. He did it for Owsla and she's too adorable and cute for me to say no to her. Do you know how excited she is for this night? I can't just not wear it and ruin her night, no matter how much I might hate it." Nat buried her face in the blanket folds in shame.

"Then think of it as something you're doing for Owsla's sake, not because my brother forced you to." a voice interrupted them.

The pair turned to see Jamie, fully dressed in her winter solider cosplay, with the exception of the face mask she was holding in her hand. Jamie, as was her nature, had truly gone all out. Her metal arm was made of plastic but looked real thanks to the awesome paint job. Having been bought, it was completely functional and professional looking. The clothes looked genuine, the top made of real leather and close fitting to the body as were the cargo pants. The rest of the outfit was completed with a pair of finger-less gloves and combat boots, along with a plastic replica of the SIG- Sauer P220 the Winter Solider had in the movie in her holster. With her hair dyed brown and pulled back in a french braid Natasha had done for her earlier, she looked amazing. An amazing, real-life, gender bent, Winter Solider.

There was silence as Natasha took a moment to stare at her girlfriend. Finally, when words came out of her mouth again, only five words came out. "Damn, you look fucking hot."

Jamie flushed. "Rose!"

But Natasha wasn't about to apologize, in fact she didn't reply at all. She continued to appreciate that the girl standing before her was _her_ girlfriend because damn she was a lucky girl. Before Jamie could smack her however, Natasha grabbed her hand and pulled her to sit on her lap. Jamie sat, arms crossed and grumbling about her stupid girlfriend, but complying none the less.

"Nattie, Nattie, Nattie!" Owsla exclaimed excitedly, jumping up and down as she ran back into the living room after running all around the house. "Look I'm Spider man!"

Natasha smiled, a little overwhelmed at the child's excitement. "Yes, yes I see! You look very cute."

Jamie stared at the blue alien, straightening on Nat's lap protectively, as if she could block all the alien's intent to interact with Natasha. Clearly, she still didn't trust the kid. But still, even Jamie's cold gaze could see that Owsla looked positively adorable in her costume. Owsla's Spider man costume was a little girl's dress version. The top part was fairly accurate with it's web designs and huge black spider, but the similarities stopped there. The bottom was a fluffy blue tutu and the black mask only covered her eyes like a masquerade mask. But it was obvious why Sonny had chosen it, because she really did look cute as she flounced around in her tutu, running all around the house in her little boots.

"Cute? I'm a hero! Heroes look cool, not cute!" Owsla whined, jumping up and down frustratingly with an adorable pout on her lips.

"You're right I'm sorry," Natasha apologized, trying to be serious for Owsla's sake but not managing to stop smiling. "You look very, very, cool."

Owsla smiled brightly at that and was about to run off again when suddenly the group heard loud thumps and a bang coming from the master bedroom, immediately followed by Joel barging out the door, looking flustered and disheveled. Locking eyes with Jamie he said clearly, "Someday, your brother is going to accidentally kill me." He stood there for a moment, breathing heavily and no one dared to ask what had just transpired in there. Unluckily, they didn't have to ask.

"Joely! You forgot your helmet!" Sonny appeared behind Joel and without warning, stood on his tippy toes to slip on Joel's Iron Man helmet.

"Sonny... I can't see."

It was then that Sonny realized he had slipped it on backwards. "Oh, sorry Joel," Turning the mau5 around, he righted the helmet on his head. "Did you get your costume on okay?" He asked when it was corrected. "I tried to help you put it on, but you sorta fell off the bed."

Going a little wide eyes, Phishie dragged Owsla towards her, covering her Mau5 ears. Meanwhile, Jamie and Natasha both looked away awkwardly. Realizing this, Sonny looked around at them embarrassed. "That's not what I meant!"

"Then what did you mean?" Jamie challenged.

"I meant I was helping him dress!" there was an awkward pause as Sonny realized that sounded even worse. "I mean, he fell over and then..."

"More like helping him undress." Natasha muttered, trying not to laugh.

Jamie elbowed her girlfriend before she got in trouble. "Just stop, I don't wanna know."

"Nothing happened!" Sonny insisted.

"Suuuuure." Jamie sarcastically agreed.

"Let's just go!" Joel grumbled, frustrated, walking away before his BFF could embarrass him further that night.

That evening... (PLEASE NOTE: This ending is inspired by a song, "Party 44" by RIOT please go check that out!)

"Let's go to that house next!" Owsla said, pointing excitedly at a one story brick house.

"Owsla, we've already been there," Sonny explained. "You can only go to each house once."

"OoOOoh..." Owsla said. "Then where next?"

"Uuuuh... where we haven't before." Sonny replied. Thanks, Captain Obvious.

That was easier said than done, the rambunctious little alien had already dragged them all around the neighborhood. It was getting harder to find houses they hadn't been to, mostly because they were lost but no one wanted to admit it. The Lowe's Farm neighborhood was huge and hard enough to navigate in daylight, never mind the night time.

"Why don't we go this way?" Joel suggested, pointing at at a particularly dark street. It was obvious there weren't many houses to trick-or-treat on that street but it's not like they had anything better to do.

"Ok," Natasha took the plunge first, turning swiftly to walk towards the street in question. "After this we should go back."

The group nodded in agreement and followed after her. The night was getting long, and although they had been having barrels of fun, they were getting tired. It was definitely time to head home soon; it was getting late. With Owsla leading the way, they walked down the sidewalk. Sonny holding Owsla's trick-or-treat bag in one arm and Owsla's hand in the other. Joel walked behind them, deep in thought with Phish right on his heels. Natasha and Jamie brought up the rear, holding hands where they _thought_ no one could see them. The street itself barely had any porch lights on. The houses who did had left candy bowls outside, long since emptied by greedy trick-or-treaters. In fact, it seemed like the whole block had been abandoned, void of any trick-or-treaters, until they ran into a very strange man. He staggered onto the side walk in a way that you couldn't be sure just where exactly he had come from. Joel was about to tell the group to cross the street in order to avoid him, but the man walked straight up to them before he could.

"Duuuuude..." the man said, stumbling not only over his own feet, but his words as well. "Are you... commin' to the... t-the paaarty?"

"What party?" Sonny asked excitedly. A party seemed like fun to him.

"Sonny!" Joel scolded. The man was obviously drunk out of his mind and maybe a little high too, he definitely smelled like weed. Truly, his best friend was crazy trying to talk to the guy because he had obviously already been through the ringer at this supposed party. He appeared to have some sort of costume but half of it was missing and he'd probably passed out once already this evening because there were cat whiskers and dicks drawn all over his face.

"It's a paaaarty man... in the, the fuckin'... basement."

"I would never go anywhere near your basement." Phishie declared.

"Oh please," Natasha rolled her eyes at her best friend with a smirk, "Your basement would be scarier." she giggled.

Looking at Nat with a non-amused expression Phish simply said "Shush." There was obviously an inside joke there the rest of them weren't getting.

"You guyzz don't... get it.. maaan. It's called Party 44.."

"Why is it numbered?" Sonny asked.

Noticing the the whiskers, Owsla smiled. "He looks like a kitty cat!" she reached out to hug the drunk.

Natasha rolled her eyes, "Yeah except for the fucking dinosaur tail." Which was true, the drunk did seem to have a dinosaur tail, probably part of his missing costume.

"If you ever get stuck in a tree, kitty, I'll be sure to save you!" Owsla continued.

"Owsla, stay away from the strange man." Joel scolded, pulling her away gently so he could stand between them.

"It's a base party man"

"Oh I love base, we should go Joel!"

Somehow managing to keep a straight face, the Mau5 replied. "But you'll drop it." The rest of them burst out laughing, not able to help it. Sometimes lame jokes were the funniest.

The drunk man laughed hysterically along with them, "Get it? Cuz it's in a _base_ ment?"

"Oh," Sonny shoulders sank disappointingly. "That's not the kind of base I was thinking of..."

"It's party 44 maaan."

"I still don't get it, why is it numbered?"

"Sonny, I really don't think that's what's important right now. We should leave." Jamie said. She had tagged along to enough parties and seen enough drunk people to know where this could be headed. "He's drunk out of his mind." she pointed out, hoping her brother would see some reason.

"I know, but I'm curious. I mean like... what's with the numbering system?"

"Who knows? He's drunk man, let's go." Joel urged.

"Oh!" Sonny exclaimed, the light bulb going off above his head. "Maybe you have to like, get Party Permits now? Is that what the numbers are?" the goblin looked at the drunk half-cat half-dinasaur guy who was barely managing to stand up at this point. "Hey dude, I'm talking to you."

"N-not party 45... that's down the street..."

"Party 45? Wait, what?"

"Oh my god, Sonny!" Joel groaned. "It's just a number!"

"But dude, what if you have to get party permits now? I don't want a lame number like 51."

"51 is the number of Area 51." Phish pointed out.

"OMG!" Sonny bounced excitedly. "Now we HAVE to have #51, we could throw an Area 51 party Joel! I should make a song titled Area 51..."

Joel rolled his eyes exasperated. "Yeah sure, why don't we just look it up on the internet later?" the Mau5 looked at certain kid who was finally getting tired, as she rested her head against the goblin's leg. "Hey man, we have Owsla with us, we really should be going."

Sonny looked down at the little alien. His best friend was right, now wasn't the time to be partying or talking to drunk people, he needed to get his daughter home. Drunk people could be dangerous. "All right, let's head home." with that, he picked up his tired child, resting Owsla on his hip.

The gang turned around to head back the way they came, to attempt to figure out the enigma of roads the neighborhood had become that night. Finding their way back home would be difficult, but hopefully not impossible. Since at least 1/3 of them had the experience of having to stumble home drunk before, surely they could do it sober.

"Hey wait!" The drunk called behind them but no one payed him any attention. "WAAIIIT UPP!"

Sonny yelped as he felt a pull on his shoulder. He was forcefully jerked around to come face to face with that drunk guy once again. The goblin looked at the man shocked. Sonny had been to countless parties and he had dealt with a lot of drunks and usually he did just fine, but unknowingly he had provoked the drunk man so now he was dealing with an angry drunk. He had been to enough parties to recognize that look, the i'm-fucked-up-and-angry look.

"Hey!"

Sonny watched as Joel stepped him front of him, effectively blocking the man from view with his larger frame.

"Get the hell outta here!" Joel barked aggressively, trying his best to look intimidating so the guy would back off without a fight. And he was pretty good at it, he was asshole so he had to deal with angry people wanting to fight him a lot more than Sonny did.

The angry drunk wobbled on his feet before falling forward on Joel, arms grabbing onto his shoulders. "I... I forgot to tell you-"

*Bleeeeeeh*

Before Joel could shove the guy off of him, the drunk puked all over him and crumpled to the ground, passing out. The gang was speechless for a long moment as they tried to gauge Joel's reaction. When he turned around he was obviously pissed.

"You okay, Sonny?" he asked.

The goblin blinked at his BFF. "Yeah, I'm fine... but you reek like puke." he said, starring worriedly at Joel's chest plate, covered in vomit.

Joel looked down at his costume, seething in quiet anger. "Yeah. I know."

"Thank you Joel." smiling, Sonny grabbed his hand, pulling him along with the rest of the group. "Let's go home guys."


	21. Chapter 21

The hum of the road beneath the tires did little to calm him, Sonny's mind occupied with the useless speculation about the situation. What would happen when Owsla took her first bit? Sonny's eyes couldn't help but drift to the rear view mirror every ten seconds. It was a new thing to him, to have something in the backseat so precious to him... well, something alive that is. He had transported precious equipment in the backseat before but this was different. This was his daughter, a small precious creature he was responsible fore the well-being of. He thought seriously as he watched the daughter in question. Owsla was sitting in the backseat, marveling at every new sight beyond the window.

"Wow..." Owsla's jaw was open as it had been for most of the ride. Currently, she was gaping at an impressively large building. "Hey mom? What is that?"

"It's a building."

Owsla looked confused as she stared out the window. "Then..." She pointed at another building. "What's that?"

"It's another building." Sonny smiled at Owsla who was narrowing her eyes trying to make sense of what he was saying.

"But they don't look alike." she argued.

Sonny laughed. "No, they don't." he agreed. "There's many different types of building. Where we're crashing currently is called a house, which is a type of building. There's shops, office buildings, and restaurants like the one we're headed to now."

After declaring that they should go to On the Border for lunch, Sonny had gotten down from the lab table (as Natasha had requested) and proceeded to make plans. Natasha had attempted to invite Phish along, who had stayed behind, but she didn't pick up the phone (as usual) so they continued without her. Currently, the gang was on the road to the restaurant, split between the two cars. Sonny, Joel, and Owsla were in the Laurie Family van while Natasha and Jamie tailed them in her car. Sonny had offered to drive but had been flat out refused by the mau5, pointing out he was injured and had a concussion so he was stuck in the passenger's seat for now. Though, the goblin was pretty sure Joel just wanted to hog the driver's seat to himself.

The ravenette sighed frustratedly. He still had yet to finish his conversation with Joel from earlier and it was putting him in a sour mood. He was no where near done chewing him out yet; he still had a lot of things he wanted to confront the mau5 about. Not saying anything with the mau5 right next to him was making him a bit fidgety. Should he bring it up again? No wait, Owsla was in the car. He'd have to save the discussion for later when she wasn't around. Probably tonight when she was asleep. They really shouldn't be fighting in front of Owsla, his cringed just thinking of the scene in Theodore's lab. What kind of parent makes their child cry? However, that particular incident had been his own fault and-

"Mom!"

"Uh, yes sweetheart?" Sonny snapped out of his inner monologues.

"If buildings are different only by their purpose, how come I haven't seen two identical buildings yet?"

Sonny laughed at bit at his daughter's misunderstanding. "well, buildings that serve the same purpose tend to look alike but get this, on earth? We have people called architects."

"Architects?"

"Mmmhmm. And these people, they go around designing buildings so like, every buildings looks different... even if they have the same purpose."

"Woah..."

"Well, except for like, restaurant chains and other trademarked buildings and stuff." Sonny rectified his statement.

"What does that mean Mom?"

"Uh..." Sonny pursed his lips. After thinking about it for a while, he opened his mouth again. "Well, you see..."

The rest of the car ride there was filled with conversation as Sonny tried to answer all of the curious little alien's questions.

 **OH LOOK PAGE BREAK!**

Joel got out of the van right as Natasha's car was pulling into the parking space next to them. He ad stayed quiet the entire ride here, unsure what to say to his best friend riding along beside him. Not that it had mattered anyway since Sonny had spent most of the trip conversing with Owsla. Ever since he gotten here it seemed like there had been a dynamic shift in their friendship. It had been bothering him for a while but it hadn't seemed dangerous until now. The small initial crack he had felt was now more of a full sized rift. And speaking of that rift, he noted with bleak certainty that their argument in the viewing room was not over... all because of...

 _"That's one of the things I love about you!"_

The words. HIS words, played through his mind like a prophecy of doom. Damn, he was stupid. he really needed to learn to keep his mouth shut. Then again, inability to keep opinions to himself was part of the reason he had a reputation for being a 'meanie' as Sonny so eloquently put it. How was he going to explain this one? I mean, how do you explain-

"Ow!" The mau5 yelped as something hit him.

"I told you to move like, twenty times." Natasha continued to push open the car door that had just hit him in the hip as he backed away. Standing up, she shut it, giving him a glance. "You okay?"

"Fine, why?"

Natasha promptly gave him a 'I'm-so-done-with-you' look. "I don't know, maybe the fact that you didn't hear me after I shouted at you repeatedly?"

"Natasha!"

Nat turned at the sound of her girlfriend's voice. "I'm coming!" Walking away from the passenger's seat, she came to stand across from her girlfriend on the other side of the car. Jamie had insisted on driving and reluctantly, Nat had let her. Instead, the brunette had chatted on excitedly about her latest video project while Jamie drove.

"What i it?" she asked the blonde who was staring at the backseat confused.

"Where did you put my hoodie?"

Opening the backseat door, Natasha realized a certain yellow hoodie appeared to be missing. Upon closer inspection however, she saw a piece of mustard yellow in all the mess. "It's fallen under my equipment..." Like most cars that usually carry one passenger only, Natasha's backseat had become a common storage space. As a student of the visual arts, her car was constantly in disarray including among the clutter, camera bag, tripods, audio equipment, lighting equipment, costumes, ect. Jamie's poor hoodie had slipped beneath it all. Natasha bent down to retrieve it for her, being closer to where it currently resided.

"Natasha, when's our anniversary?"

"May 5th... why?"

"When's my birthday?"

"March 20th?"

"Is that an answer or a question?"

Natasha stood up, the hoodie in her hands, giving it to her girlfriend with an odd look. "An answer... what's with the questions?"

Jamie shrugged non-nonchalantly. "Just seeing if you remember... my assassin needs to keep her skills sharp."

Natasha rolled her eyes but her smile refuted her annoyance. "My skills are plenty sharp."

"Oh really?" Jamie smiled mischievously. "Do you remember word for word the first valentines you sent me?"

By the blush on Natasha's face, Bucky knew she did. "Say it." She demanded. "Word for word."

Natasha's jaw dropped a bit. "Now?" Jamie nodded. "Out loud?" Jamie nodded. "Here?" Jamie nodded. "Why!"

"Because I want you to reaffirm your love fore me."

"What!" Natasha stepped back a bit, thrown off by her girlfriend's apparent seriousness. "No way! I'm not going to say that _here_ of all places!"

"What? Do you not love me enough to say it?"

"N-no, that's not-"

"Then say it!" Jamie insisted, her eyes completely serious and unwavering.

Natasha glared at her girlfriend stubbornly for a long moment before conceding to her wishes, muttering the phrase quietly.

"Louder."

Cheeks burning ablaze, Natasha blurted it out louder. "Are you the Skrill to my Mau5? Because I'm in wub, wub, wub, with you!"

Bucky smiled at her girlfriend who looked like she wanted to die. Though, despite Natasha's fears, it didn't seem like either EDM artist had hear her, currently taking residence on the other side of the van. Still, that deserved a kiss she supposed. So, coming around the car, she leaned over and kissed her partner to make up for her bullying.

"Oh no, you're gonna have to kiss me a lot more to make up for _that,_ get back over here."

So Jamie did, pushing Natasha against the car this time to kiss her more firmly.

"You're so... mean... to me." The brunette complained in between kisses, wrapping her arms around the other.

"I know... but... I wub you too." Jamie smirked.

"Shut up!" Natasha glared as she leaned in again.

"Nattie? What does that mean?"

Jamie backed off Natasha who jumped, startled by the sudden intrusion from the blue teenager.

"What does what mean?"

"The thing you said earlier. Are you the Skri-" Owsla was quickly forced to shut up as Natasha covered her mouth to prevent the alien from saying anything more. She had already gotten lucky no one heard her the first time, she couldn't guarantee she'd be so lucky if it were repeated.

Joel, appearing from behind the van, looked at them curiously. "What did you say?"

"Nothing! I said nothing. Right Owsla?"

The little alien could only nod in confusion with a hand clamped over her mouth.

"Where did my brother go?" Jamie asked, looking beyond Joel but failing to see a certain brown-eyed goblin.

"Sonny? He was right- turning around, the mau5 quickly realized the goblin was NOT right behind him. Instead, he was almost to the restaurant door. "SONNY!" Joel screamed across the parking lot, a dangerous look on his face. "What did I say about wandering off alone?"

Sonny turned around at the shouting, seeing clearly a very irritated Mau5. Realizing his mistake, the goblin sprinted for the restaurant door to find sanctuary before Joel could catch up to him. And, in turn, that only spurred the Mau5 to run off after him.

Watching this new development, Natasha turned to her girlfriend. "Shouldn't we-?"

Jamie shook her head. "Just let them sort it out, getting between them is never a good idea."

Sonny knew Joel had told him to wait for him, but he hadn't taken him that seriously (and apparently he should have). He was a capable young man, he could handle putting them on the waiting list by himself. But, somehow, he had pissed off Joel and now he was running for his life. Entering lobby area, he used his size to his advantage, maneuvering between the other patrons with ease to the podium. Leaving no room for light conversation, he blurted out only the essential information. "Tim. Party of five."

The lady blinked a bit before writing it down, probably a little overwhelmed by the goblin's urgency. "Alright, here's your buzzer it will buzz when your table is ready, the current wait-"

Sonny stood there trying to be nice by listening to what the lady had to say, but as soon as he saw Joel open the door, beginning to push through the throng of customers, he knew it was time to go. "Thanks, bye!"

"Sonny, get back here!"

"EEK!" Scurrying away from the podium, Sonny ran off into the main part of the restaurant, making his way through the rows of tables. "'Scuse me, sorry, pardon me ma'm..." he muttered off apologies as he ran through the restaurant. Looking behind him, he had managed to put some distance between him and Joel but not much. The mau5 was barreling towards him, narrowly avoiding a collision with a waitress as he flew past, not even saying sorry! That jerk face... he needed a lecture on manners apparently... but not now because for some reason the nature had gotten it backwards and the mau5 was chasing the cat this time.

"Sonny, stop running for fuck's sake!

"Stop running? Stop chasing me!" Like hell he was going to stop running. If Joel caught up to him, who knows what was going to happen!

By now, customers had begun to laugh at the two of them, chasing each other wildly, weaving through the tables, ducking from each other's grasps. Which was just great! He was supposed to be laying low. WHAT PART OF THIS WAS LAYING LOW? Not to mention to fact that now his face was red because he was being humiliated in front of an entire restaurant full of people! But Joel kept chasing, so Sonny kept running faster, so Joel ran faster, so they ran faster, and faster, and faster until-

"HEY! RUNNING!" A very menacing looking employee barked at them, un-amused at their antics.

Like scolded kids, they immediately froze on the spot. Sonny looked around uncertainty, .feeling like a cornered animal. Well, if he couldn't run... he continued his escape in an awkward fast walk. You know, that fast walk we all do when we get caught running in the halls but don't really want to stop running? So we walk with strained stick legs, trying to be as fast as possible without bending our legs so we aren't _technically_ running? And in this manner, Sonny continued to walk-run through On the Border. As followed in a similar fashion, a pretty picture was painted before us. Two grown men, stick walking like children, through a crowded restaurant... safe to say there were some customers laughing their asses off. But back to the chase.

Sonny was quickly realizing his disadvantage: his short legs. Not being able to bend his legs meant he was no longer able to propel himself forward. Joel, being tall, covered more distance per step than he did, gaining on him quickly not that they're speed was about the same.

"SONNY!"

"I have so much to live for!" the ravenette protested.

Reaching the front lobby area once again, the goblin used his smaller stature, which seconds before had been a hindrance, to his advantage. Although the lobby area was crowded, he was easily able to slip through the small spaces between the people thanks to his small frame. Joel however, who had been a hair pull away from catching him, was now stuck, struggling to et past because he was bigger.

Sonny watched his best friend struggle out of the corner of his eye with a smirk as he escaped to the outside world.

When Joel finally managed to push past all the people in the lobby he huffed frustratedly. That damn idiot... storming across the parking lot, he glared at said idiot who was cowering behind his sister.

"Ah! Jamie, help me! Joely is scary!"

"He's _your_ bestfriend!"

"Don't... you ever... do that again!" Joel shouted out between panted breaths, finally standing a few feet away.

"Huh?"

"Doesn't your arm hurt now! You've gone and re-injured it!"

Sonny flinched a bit when he realized Joel was right. Tightening all the muscles in his arms in order to fast walk had revived some of the pain.

"And don't run away from me!" Joel burst out.

Sonny took a step back, not from fear, but from surprise. He had expected a flurry of things, insults, screaming, gritted teeth, anything but... this.

"How am I every supposed to help you when you keep distancing yourself from me!"

The goblin was at a completely loss for words. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize-"

"You didn't realize I was your friend? Is that it?"

"N-no!"

"'Friend' isn't just some fucking label you know!"

Sonny opened his mouth to speak but seeing Owsla out of the corner of his eye, stopped, bitting back a harsh reply. He had a lot to say, but again he reminded himself 'Not now. Later.' In his hand, the buzzer began to vibrate, indicating that their table was ready. "Okay," Sonny conceded. "I'm sorry. Why don't we go eat now, okay?" he said calmly, forcing his face to smile for Owsla's sake, the little alien looking ready to cry, fearful eyes switching back and forth between the two of them.

There was a long pause before Joel agreed. "Yeah, okay."

"Okay!" Nat jumped, putting on an excited smile, attempting to break the awkward atmosphere that had settled upon them. "Let's go eat all the Mexican food we can!"

"Yeah!" Sonny cheered in agreement. "Let's eat!" And, grabbing Owsla's hand, lead the gang into the restaurant to do just that.


	22. On The Border (of death by starvation)

The lobby area was just as crowded as it had been when Joel was chasing him around the restaurant. The reminder of their previous foolish behavior made Sonny's cheeks burn, he really hoped no one would remember him, but he seriously doubted his wish would be granted. Ignoring his shame, he pushed his way to the front so that he could hand the buzzer, currently lighting up and vibrating against his palm, to the waiter. This time, a skinny red headed boy with freckles scattered about his face was standing at the podium.

Taking the buzzer from him, the waiter smiled that smile you knew he had been faking all day. "Booth or a table?"

Before Sonny could answer, the Mau5 squeaked up behind him. "Booth."

"Please." the goblin asked, holding aback a glare at his best friend.

The waiter just nodded and started walking off, motioning for them to follow. As they followed him through the restaurant, Sonny ducked his head low, attempting to hide behind his long hair. He couldn't tell if people were actually staring at him or if he was just imagining the whispers in his ears. The walk of shame finally stopped when they reached a booth long enough to accommodate all 5 of them comfortably. Sonny sat first, eager to be seated away from wandering eyes, Owsla scooting in close behind, and Joel following her. Jamie and Natasha crawled in across him accordingly.

The waiter then began the usual mantra. "Hi, my name is Joseph and I'll be your server today..." blah blah blah in the customary fashion. Sonny tried to appear like he was listening but in reality, he was already pouring over the menu excitedly. The Tex-Mex commonly sold in the southern state would never measure up the real taste of Mexican his mom cooked in the kitchen, but you'd never hear him say it was bad food. After telling Joseph he'd stick with water to drink, he saw the fajita plate on the menu and started salivating. He _could_ get a fajita plate for two and share it with Joel- wait no. Fuck that. He didn't feel like being nice to Joel right now.

"I'm sorry, is there a problem?"

The goblin looked up to the source of the hostility. Natasha was staring sternly at the waiter who in turn was fiddling nervously under her gaze.

Joseph snapped to attention. "i'm sorry, what?" a nervous smile filling his features.

"Is there a problem?" Natasha repeated.

The blonde beside her frowned. "Rose wha-"

"He's been blatantly staring at us since we sat down," the red-head explained. "If there's a problem, you might as well just tell us" she told the waiter.

Joseph the poor waiter, shifted nervously, a blush rising to his cheeks at being called out on it. "I-I apologize," he stammered. "It's just one of your party members is in serious violation of dress code" There was an awkward pause as the gang blinked up at him, trying to digest his words. "I-I mean," Joseph continued uncomfortably. "I don't want to kick you out b-but rules are rules."

The gang stared at Joseph for a long moment, still trying to understand what he was getting at. None of them had dressed up in anything unusual that morning so who was he talking about? Slowly they followed his gaze one by one to Owsla who was starring intensely at the menu, lost in her own world. It was then she looked up with a doe like expression.

"...what?"

Immediate understanding dawned on all of them. Everyone had been in such a rush this morning, no one had bothered to make sure Owsla was properly clothed... which meant she was still had the clothes on from yesterday... which also meant what was once a floor length dress on her as a child was little more than a long shirt on her now.

Catching the numerous stares falling upon her, Owsla blushed. "D-did I do something wrong?" she asked, looking afraid.

Seeing this, Sonny instinctively wrapped her into a hug. "No, no it's not your fault sweetie, you did nothing wrong."

Natasha squared her jaw. "We'll take care of it by the time you get back." she told Joseph, effectively closing the topic of discussion.

The waiter nodded and finished getting their drinks ordered before he hurriedly scurried away. When he was gone, Natasha scooted out of the booth.

"Where are you going?" Jamie asked her girlfriend, confused as to why she was leaving.

"I have costumes from filming in my car, I'm sure I've got something she can wear." the red head replied, beginning to walk away.

"Nattie wait! I'll go with you!" Owsla offered, starting to get up from her seat.

"No!" Jamie shouted immediately, then continued when she realized every one was looking at her. "Uuuuh... you probably shouldn't be walking around in that attire."

Natasha nodded in agreement. "She's right, I'll be right back." and with that, the red-head left.

The cheery atmosphere seemed to leave with her as she trotted away. All that remained was the tense air between Sonny and Joel, not that Owsla noticed.

"Mom!" she tapped at the menu excitedly. "What is that?"

Sonny leaned over Owsla's menu to see it better. "That's a picture of tacos."

"Tacos?"

The goblin nodded. "They're really good. You take a taco shell right?" at Owsla's confused expression he took a step back in his explanation. "Okay so like, taco shells are these tortilla chip pockets made to put stuff in."

"What's a tortilla chip?"

"Well... they're... uhh..." Luckily Sonny was saved when a waiter came with the salsa and chips and he grabbed one excitedly. "This is a tortilla chip. So like this, but pocket shaped! And then you take some taco meat-"

Bucky drowned out Sonny's words with her own thoughts, her leg bouncing impatiently under the table. The fight with her girlfriend that morning had gotten her thinking. What exactly had Owsla done to Natasha last night? She had already theorized that Rose's memory was affected, seeing how she didn't remember the incident at all, but quizzing Nat earlier hadn't produced results. Jamie smirked to herself thinking back to making out with her girlfriend against her car. Correction- if had produced stunning results, just not the sort of results she was looking for.

Sonny was trying to explain what tortillas where ("edible round flag things that are really floppy") when Natasha returned, carrying a large black bag. It was a costume bag to be exact, commonly used by dancers and other performers to easily transport the numerous costumes they needed for performances. "I found something that should work temporarily," she said. "Come on Owsla, I'll take you to the bathroom so you can get changed."

At the word 'bathroom' Jamie's head shot up. Natasha and Owsla. In the bathroom. _Alone._ Again? Not on her watch. As Joel slipped out of the booth so Owsla could get out, Jamie scooted out also. "I'll do it." she volunteered.

The entire table (with the exception of the blue cinnamon roll of course) looked at the blonde shocked.

"You sure?" her girlfriend asked.

Jamie nodded. "Yeah I'm sure," she said, taking the bag from Natasha's hand and Owsla's with the other. _'Damn right I'm sure! Like hell I'm going to let you two be alone in the_ _bathroom_ _of all places!'_ "Besides, you haven't had a chance to look at the menu and I'm sure the waiter will be back soon." she excused.

"True." Natasha admitted.

"Well are you going or not? Don't just stand there all day." Joel folded his arms annoyed. Behind him, Sonny not-so-secretly huffed. Luckily Joel chose not to comment.

"If you're sure..." Natasha finally relented, sliding back into the booth.

"Be right back." and with that, the blonde and blue teenager were gone.

Now it was Natasha's turn to sit alone across from the quarreling best friends who were looking everywhere but at each other. _'Now I know how Phishie and Karmina felt'_ Natasha lamented, thinking back to the earlier days of her friendship with Bucky. Their friendship turned relationship hadn't always been so smooth sailing. In fact, their path to best friends had been riddled with trials and tears from too many misunderstandings. Often times to the point where Nat had often found herself sitting next to Jamie at the lunch table with Phish and Auroa, both refusing to talk to each other. Thinking of Joel and Sonny much like herself and Jamie she laughed to herself.

"What?" Joel asked, looking bothered.

Natasha just shook her head, figuring it best not to divulge her thoughts. "It's nothing."

"I'm thinking of just getting like a huge fajita plate for Owsla, Jamie, and I, anyone want to make it four?" Sonny expected negative answers but he figured he might as well ask.

"Sure." Joel said, throwing down his menu.

Natasha opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by the arrival of Joseph who had brought their drinks. Pulling out his pen and notepad he looked at the three of them expectantly. "What can I get you?"

"Just a huge thing of fajitas for the four of us," Sonny replied. "And you Natasha?"

"I... uuuhh... I'll be fine with chips and salsa." She trailed off uncomfortably.

This prompted Sonny to roll his eyes. "I'm buying Nat, just get whatever you want."

"I can pay for myself, I'm just not hungry!" The red head quipped.

Now most of us would jump at the chance for a rich, hot, and famous artist to pay for their meal and not worry about the tab, but not Natasha. Her insecurities about being a burden on others just wouldn't allow it. In many ways, it embarrassed her.

"Bucky's right, your pride gets annoying sometimes."

"W-what?" Natasha sputtered, surprised.

"If she's being difficult, just order some Fajitas, she loves those." It was that moment Jamie returned, sliding into the booth as Natasha simultaneously scooted over to make room.

"Traitor." She muttered halfheartedly.

Sonny just shook his head at the two of them. "Fajitas for 5 then." He told the waiter.

Joseph just nodded and walked away.

Now that he was gone, the group was able to refocus their attention to a certain alien who had also come back from the bathroom. Instead of an indecent night shirt, the young teen was now clad in a very... _interesting_ costume, catching numerous stares through out the restaurant.

"Natasha..." Sonny said slowly as he chewed his bite of salsa and chips. "What's that?"

Natasha looked up to see Owsla in the full outfit, her jaw slowly dropping. The costume she was wearing was lime green, navy, and white cyber punk, a short sleeve button up and tie and slouchy navy pants but you couldn't see them over the bright white lab coat she was wearing. The costume was complete with a stethoscope around her neck and a very interesting headpiece. A huge, green, emo-looking bunny head to be exact, topped off with a blue tongue sticking out of its mouth.

Immediately the red head began panicking. "OH MY GOD! Take the bunny head off!" she instructed, turning to hiss at her girlfriend. "I didn't mean for her to wear the entire costume! Just the pants to cover her ass and _maybe_ the shoes!"

"Well you didn't tell me that!" Jamie defended herself, surprised Natasha was freaking out so much. "How am I supposed to know?"

Of course no one understood why Natasha was panicking because no one knew where the costume had was from. And those who didn't know, didn't _need_ to know. The problem wasn't that the costume looked indecent, it was that where it had come from was, and having it all put together it was _very_ recognizable. Their ignorance though was fairly obvious when Joel spoke up.

"...that's a really interesting Mau5 head you got there." he said, making an extreme 'kay' face.

Natasha buried her head in her hands. "It's not a Mau5 head, it's a bunny head... from an anime" which was true... just not all of the truth.

Owsla took off the offending head piece, looking crestfallen. "Did I do something wrong again?"

Sonny shook his head. "No honey, just- Joel, let me out," Sonny awkwardly climbed over Joel out of the booth making the Mau5 grunt in discomfort. "Let me help..." taking the bunny head from her, he placed it back in the costume bag along with the lab coat and stethoscope. This left her in only the cyber-punk outfit which admittedly, looked good on her.

"Natasha, give me your keys, I'll go put this back in your trunk." Joel suddenly offered, taking the costume bag.

"Oh, uh, thanks." Natasha fished her keys from her back pocket and tossed them at him. Joel, catching the flying metal with ease, took the costume bag and left. Owsla and Sonny slid back into their seats.

"Sooo..." Sonny started, dipping another chip into the communal salsa. "Exactly why do you have a green bunny costume in your car?"

Natasha stopped mid-chew and swallowed nervously, clearing her throat. "Well...um," It wasn't exactly a green bunny costume but she wasn't about to correct him, less she had to tell him what it really was. Just how was she going to put this? "Phish and I went to A-con last weekend and that's actually her cosplay outfit."

Sonny looked the outfit up and down. "This is cosplay?"

Natasha nodded. "Mmmhmm"

It was Jamie's turn to quiz next. "What character? I don't remember hearing about this anime."

Natasha smiled nervously, feeling like she was slowly being backed into a corner. "You wouldn't have. He's from an esoteric... kinda? Different... genre." She rambled, trying not to lie, but quickly running out of options.

"What genre?"

"Err... romance."

Jamie's eyes went just a little wide, having a sneaking suspicion as to where this was going and why Natasha was avoiding the questions. She knew exactly just what kind of 'romance' Natasha was into which could only mean bad things. But she didn't ask further about the origin of the costume, only quietly pulling out her phone as Joel came back to the table.

Sitting down, he looked at Natasha with a weird expression on his face. "Out of all the junk in your car, you chose that costume?"

"It was either that or the french maid costume." Natasha said, nonchalantly taking a sip of her tea. "I figured the bunny costume would be a little more appropriate."

Jamie's head shot straight up. "You have a french maid costume?"

"Y-yes." Natasha admitted. It was in her car right now so she really couldn't lie about it.

"Hey Mom?" Owsla looked at her mother curiously. "What's a french maid costume?"

Sonny was quick to cover Owsla's ears. "There are somethings in life precious cinnamon rolls don't need to know about. This is one of them."

The alien frowned uncertainly, still able to hear everything that was being said, even with her ears covered. "Okay?"

"Why?" was Joel's question.

Natasha shook her head, embarrassed. "Don't ask."

"Can I see you wearing it?" an incredulous look on Jamie's features.

"W-what!" Nat flushed. "No!"

"That was a serious question."

"That was a serious answer!"

"No, really."

"No, really, no!"

Luckily their bickering was interrupted by the arrival of food. Joseph and his pretty co-worker Sarah stood with trays of food. And to starving eyes they had the aura of angels... or maybe that was just the aroma of food. The blue alien watched as plates of sizzling food were placed in front of her, the overwhelming scent of something edible so close by was a psychological torture she didn't understand. An unmistakable growl rising from her stomach made her jump.

Natasha laughed, breaking the tense air for a moment. "Sounds like you're starving."

"It does?" Owsla asked curiously.

Sonny laughed as well, taking a tortilla and loading it up with fixings. "That sound is your stomach asking for food." he explained.

Owsla frowned. "Well it could at least ask nicely."

The gang laughed at that and Sonny handed her a fajita nervously. "Here little dude, try this."

"Mom I'm not that little." she said grumpily, as the tortilla wrapped goodness was passed into her hands.

"Careful, okay?" Sonny steadied his breath as he let go of the fajita. Now was the moment of truth. Owsla was either going to eat this and get sick and die, or be just fine... fear for his daughter was making his hands shake nervously. "Now, I realize we're all a little scared at this point but I think we'll all be fine if we just-" the goblin stopped his outer monologue as he caught a suspicious movement out of the corner of his eyes. "Owsla?"

The little alien looked up at him curiously. "Yes?"

Sonny stared back, frightened. "Did you just swallow that!?"

"Yes?"

Sonny's hand reached for his forehead. "Oh my god."

Realizing his oncoming panic, Jamie quickly reacted. "Sonny calm down, you just said we'll be fine."

"I know but now it's actually happening!"

"Dude, calm the fuck down, nothings going to happen." Joel rolled his eyes, very helpfully.

"I don't wanna hear that from you." Sonny snapped.

Natasha sent a nervous glance between them at the open hostility. "There's nothing we can do now so we should all just calm down and accept the outcome... whatever it may be."

Sonny tried to steady his breathing but there was still a nervous shake in his words. "Yeah, okay... you're right, Owsla, do you-?"

"Hm?" Owsla looked at her mom expectantly, the last of a tortilla disappearing behind berry colored lips.

"Did you just finish that fajita?"

"No, I already ate that. I just finished my second tortilla."

And that's when the gang noticed a mysterious number of tortillas missing.

Flabbergasted, Sonny placed his hand on her head. "Is your stomach upset? Feverish?"

"No..."

"Nauseous? Dizzy? Bloated?"

Owsla blushed. "I'm fine mom."

"Sweating? Fatigue? Diarrhea?"

"MOM!" Owsla exclaimed, pushing Sonny's hand away, abashed at his questioning. "I'm fine!"

"Well she certainly eats like a teenager." Natasha observed. "Look away for two seconds and she's already eaten everything."

"Hmm, I think she gets that from Sonny," Jamie said, sending the goblin a pointed look. "Always eating my pizza rolls when I'm not looking."

"Wha- hey!"

"No, I think that's just a trait of most older brothers who wish to be extra annoying." Natasha lamented, thinking of Theodore.

"True."

"I'm not annoying..." Sonny pouted.

"Keep telling yourself that."

Ignoring his meanie of a sister, Sonny turned back to Owsla. "Are you sure you don't feel sick?"

"Positive Mom. " Owsla reassured him, wolfing down another tortilla. She found that she really enjoyed the taste of the tortillas.

Sonny watched worriedly for a long second before sighing in relief. "Tell me immediately if you start feeling sick."

"I will."

Finally accepting the fact that Owsla was not dying at the moment, the goblin refocused his attention to the communal fajita plate. Grabbing a tortilla for himself he stuffed it with beef, peppers, and cheese.

Natasha swallowed the bite in her mouth. "You really do worry too much."

Sonny opened his mouth to reply but quickly closed it when a piece of tortilla fell out, his mouth was too full to answer. Jamie had already beaten him to it however.

"Says the worry-wort of the century! You were so worried about graduation you started _crying_!"

Natasha looked away embarrassed, remembering the incident. "Shut up."

"That's pretty pathetic." Joel oh so helpfully pointed out.

"No like, she calls me on the phone right? Crying because she has to walk across a stage."

"I was stressed! Besides, I have horrible stage fright, you know that." Natasha pouted.

"It's okay Nat," Sonny reassured. "I cried during my graduation too."

"You never even graduated! You dropped out of high school!"

"Hey! My kindergarten graduation was _very_ emotional!"

Shaking her head, Natasha continued on. "Never mind that, what are you two going to do about getting Owsla some clothes?"

Sonny stopped chewing for a moment. "Wut?" the sound muffled by the mashed meat in his mouth.

"Clothes? Owsla was dress coded just thirty minutes ago, she's going to need some proper clothing unless you want her walking around in this cyber-punk forever."

"Oh!" Jamie exclaimed in recognition. "You mean the yaoi costume of sin you put her in?" Apparently Jamie had found it on Google.

Natasha went wide-eyed at her girlfriend as Sonny glanced at Joel curiously, he hadn't even thought about it. Meanwhile he missed Natasha mouthing "OMFG I SWEAR IF YOU TELL HIM WHAT THAT IS I WILL FUCKING _SHANK_ YOU!" to her girlfriend in the most loving way of course.

Catching Sonny's curious glances, Joel shrugged. "This doesn't involve me."

 **SMACK!**

Secretly reaching behind Owsla, Sonny smacked the back of the Mau5's head, ignoring Joel's 'WTF?' stare in response.

"Ok, you're right, she needs clothes... but like... I'm a dude sooo..." he looked between Jamie and Natasha expectantly.

Natasha's face quickly fell. "What! Nu uh, shopping causes me anxiety." she said, shaking her hands in a definite 'no'. She followed Sonny's gaze to Jamie.

The blonde shook her head at the both of them. "I'd just buy ten pairs of sweatpants and be done with it."

Natasha sighed. "Four adults between the 5 of us and none of us can do a simple adult thing!"

"Three actually," Jamie corrected her. "You're technically still a minor."

"And Joel's being an asshole, so two." Sonny added.

Jamie grinned. "On second thought, one, because you're the 7 year old man child."

"Hey!"

"Who are you calling?" Jamie asked, noticing Natasha's phone out.

Natasha put her cell phone to her ear. "Karmina."


End file.
